We Belong - Cable (Nathan Summers)
by FantasyandHistory
Summary: The future isn't set... Things can change... Sequel to 'Past, Present, Future' and post-'Deadpool 2! (Full Summary inside!)
1. 1

Hello dear readers! Welcome back! :) And if you're new, welcome! This is a sequel so if you've found this one first you might want to go read the first one before continuing with this story, but no pressure!

Here's a Full Summary:

 **The future isn't set...**

 **Sequel to 'Past, Present, Future' and post-'Deadpool 2'! Nina Nova's life is busy: she's working full-time as a teacher, as well as a superhero with two different teams. And not to mention she's still grappling with learning so much about her future, things she isn't supposed to know yet - let alone living in the same house as her future husband, who she's got mixed feelings about so far.**

 **And as if that wasn't enough - during a mission that takes a wrong turn, Nina is forced to open the menacing Dark Dimension, only this time she may not be able to fully close it...**

 **But the future isn't set, and things can change...**

 **Inspired by Pat Benatar's song 'We Belong' which played during the end credits of 'Deadpool 2' (great song!) An original story within the X-Men movie universe!**

Also, just wanted to give a language warning, cause there will be some swearing here (you know how Wade and Nathan are... Nina's keeping track for her swear jar ;) She loves 'Once Upon a Deadpool', less foul language, less violence, it's Nina's kind of movie! (I just saw it the other day, so I'm feeling prepared to post the sequel!)

Same as always - I don't own these characters, only my own and her storyline :) thanks and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

1.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Take On Me_ \- a-ha**

"Guys, I fucked up."

A tall, red and black suit appearing in the library doorway signaled that Wade had returned from his time-travel escapade.

"Where the hell have you been?!" demanded Ellie. "It's been hours. I thought you were just going to go back and change one thing."

"Yeah I was, and I did, but then I was kinda on a roll and..." Instead of continuing, Wade held up the warped metal mess in his hand, the small hand-held machine smoking slightly. The light blinked a few times and then died.

Ellie and Yukio's jaws fell open. "Is that Cable's time-travel device?" Yukio was the first to speak.

"It was..." Ellie stared in horror at the utterly destroyed device. "What the fuck did you do to it?! How far back in time did you go?"

"Well, long story short - oh, speaking of short..."

Domino and Nina entered the library then, breaking their conversation when they saw the others.

"Why do I get the feeling we're missing out on something here?" Domino asked of the guilty stares from the other three.

"What happened?" asked Nina. "You all look slightly alarmed."

"Douchepool here took Cable's time-travel device for a spin and totally fucked it up," Ellie explained not-so-lightly.

There was a stunned silence.

"What's 'totally fucked up'?" asked Domino. Ellie held up the device. Domino cringed.

A hand flew to Nina's mouth. " _That's_ it?"

"Uh huh."

" _That's_ the device?"

"Hard to believe, right?"

"Wade, what did you do?!" she cried.

"I went back and saved Vanessa from dying, duh! And a few other things..."

"Alright, that's understandable. But what other things?"

" _Other_ things."

"You can't just go and do things in the past, that'll change the present and future!"

"Well, we all seem to still be intact, so that's a good sign," remarked Domino.

"I thought Nathan used up his last charge," Nina recalled. "That it didn't work anymore."

"Yeah..." Ellie slowly raised a hand. "We fixed it."

"You fixed it?"

Ellie nodded while Yukio waved.

"How?"

"We recharged it. It took a long time-"

"I'll say!"

"Hey, we helped you!" Ellie snapped at Wade. Then she turned back to Nina and Domino. "And a lot of power, but it worked, I guess."

"Do you think you could do it again?"

"We can try, but this thing is beyond fried. Last time it was just a matter of recharging it, but this needs to be majorly fixed. It's probably gonna need some, if not all, new parts, and we don't even know what those would be, let alone where to get them and how to rebuild it."

"I can think of someone who does," mumbled Domino. "The man himself."

There was another silence. No one wanted to be the one to break the news to Cable that he wouldn't be returning to his family anytime soon. He was already bitter enough about it.

"Maybe he brought the instruction manual with him from the future," Domino added half-jokingly.

"Maybe he'll know how to fix it," agreed Yukio, warming to the idea and trying to sound positive.

"Who's going to ask him? And who's going to tell him why?"

There were no volunteers.

"I vote Douchepool," said Ellie.

"Shorty, you ask him," Wade decided.

"No!"

"You gotta!"

"Why me?! Why should I go when it's _your_ fault?""

"Cause your his wife, genius!"

"Not yet!" Must she constantly remind everyone - including Nathan - of that?

"He's not going to get mad at you."

"You don't know that!"

"Uh, excuse me, have you seen the way he looks at you compared to how he looks at any of us? The way he acts around you? Don't even get me started on that!"

Nina was still skeptical. She didn't want to be the bearer of the bad news. "Why doesn't Domino go, you're lucky."

"Hmm, sorry, but I'm with Wade on this one. You're the lucky one this time, girlfriend."

That was how, minutes later, she found herself standing outside Nathan's room, hesitating to knock. She could only imagine how enraged Nathan was going to be when he found out, with her delivering the news or not.

She didn't have to knock, it turned out, for the door opened suddenly, startling both her and Nathan, who jumped a little when he saw her there, her fist raised preparing to knock.

He was wearing tight workout clothes, and had a towel draped over his shoulder, obviously on his way to the training gym. "Nina."

"Hi," she squeaked.

"Can I help you?" he asked when she didn't say anything further.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, about that..." She flashed, what she hoped was, a winning smile. "We have a bit of a situation..." How was she ever going to explain this?

"Is everything alright?" he pressed gently. He really did act different around her.

"Oh yeah - well, no, that's a lie..."

"Are _you_ okay?" Concern now laced his words.

"Yeah, no, _I'm_ fine."

"Oh, good. I'm glad. By the way, you haven't seen my travel device anywhere have you? That's not exactly something I want to misplace. Don't want one of these kids getting their hands on it not knowing what it does."

"I'm glad you asked, funny you should bring that up..." Cringing, she drew her hands from behind her back to reveal the mess that was now the device. It was pretty self-explanatory.

"Did you find it like this?" he finally asked after a painful, dragging silence.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Nathan took it from her hand. "What happened?"

"Well, I couldn't tell you, to be honest-"

His head then snapped up to look at her with a flash of realization. "Oh, that little-"

* * *

The first week following X-Force stopping Russell and Nathan saving Wade made two things very clear for Nina:

One, it was going to be varying degrees of awkward having Nathan now living at the mansion.

And Two, he was, honestly, a bit of a jerk.

He avoided everyone, mostly remaining shut away in his room. This was probably related to not wanting to change this time too much with his knowledge of the future, but he was going to be stuck here until they fixed his time-travel device, and no one knew how long that would take, so he couldn't hide away forever. Might as well try and make the best of it, right? At least that's what Nina thought. Of course, no one here could really understand what he was going through.

Whenever he was around others he kept to himself and wasn't very open or friendly, shutting people down when they tried to talk to him.

"Who are you?" She had witnessed Jean and Scott meeting Nathan.

Their future son just smiled and nodded. "Yeah, this'll be good."

At least Nina knew that in the future there wouldn't be any awkward 'meet the parents' as she already knew them. And in her case, she didn't have any for him to meet.

"Nathan, I like that name," she caught Jean tell Scott once Nathan had left the young couple. She wondered what they would think about their son marrying her.

She had known from the beginning that it wasn't going to be easy. She had originally considered calling him 'Mr. Summers' - what do you call your future husband who you're not supposed to have met yet but are obviously very close to in the future? - but seeing as Scott was still around that wouldn't be too smart. Nathan had already met his wife so best keep the parents out of it for now. Talk about a walking, talking spoiler alert!

And it wasn't going to be easy for either of them - if they happened to be in the same room together, she had caught him, maybe more often than he noticed, staring at her, almost longingly. She knew and understood that it would be difficult for him to keep his distance, especially since he had just lost her and their daughter.

 _Their daughter._ She still couldn't wrap her head around this.

No, it wasn't going to be easy, but he wasn't exactly making it any easier. Most everyone at the mansion was rather intimidated by him - she herself included.

It also didn't help that Wade seemed to have selected them as his new OTP - she had to ask Domino what that stood for. His comments such as 'You two are going to make such beautiful babies! Even though I didn't end up dying I still expect you to name one after me!' and 'You get into bed with this guy!' with a wink and nudge to her, especially after seeing Nathan in action during training, didn't help the situation at all. Especially since she didn't see it at all - she didn't want to be too quick to judge, as first impressions weren't everything, but so far she was, in all honesty, having some trouble seeing what attracted her future self to this guy so much. So much so that she would choose to leave the mansion, marry him, and start a family with him, completely change her life. That was no small matter, especially not to her, she who never believed it was going to happen, and had been content with that. Things obviously changed in the future, and majorly.

She had been here at the mansion with the X-Men, teaching the students and going on missions, for so long, this was her home and they were her family. This was her life, and she had expected it to stay this way - she had _wanted_ it to. She wasn't going anywhere, and she was okay with that. That was, until a guy called Nathan Summers came into her life and quite literally changed it forever.

And, though it had luckily all been prevented now, his reason for being here in the first place was still on her mind: that he would travel through time in order to kill the child who had originally grown up to become she and Hope's murderer. This, in all honesty, frightened her a little, that he would go to such an extreme for them. Of course, she was glad of his devotion and love for them, and his protectiveness, but also found it striking and perhaps a little intimidating. That and the fact that he obviously felt so guilty for it happening, even though it didn't happen anymore. And now, of course, he was even more protective of her to ensure that nothing else came remotely close to happening that would mess with that future.

A future he wasn't getting back to anytime soon. A future which she was uncertain about.

 _And so it begins! ;) I'm sorry if the timelines start to get confusing, I'll try and keep it as clear as possible - I'm a little confused myself to be honest, haha! I was thinking this could be the revised time they fixed in Days of Future Past, but then Jean and Scott wouldn't be teenagers, but let just go with that for simplicity's sake ;) Consider this the transition stage for both casts of characters! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Get ready for lots of awkwardness... ;) and if you were disappointed by the lack of romance in the last one (I was!) then fear not for this one will be much more romantic! I just felt before it was too soon. Thanks!_


	2. 2

2.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _All out of Love_ \- Air Supply**

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Wade, who was now wearing a hoodie over his suit, turned to see Cable charging towards him, Nina right at his heels attempting to stop him. "Oh come on - you told him?! I thought we were friends!"

"He figured it out himself!"

"Yeah, who's the asshole stupid and selfish enough to steal a futuristic device and wreak havoc on the timeline?!" Nathan was so angry, it was frightening.

The halls filled with Wade's screams as Nathan chased him through the house.

Nathan didn't even bother with the stairs - he simply swung over the railing and jumped down, trapping Wade.

"You selfish son of a bitch! I didn't save your goddamn life just so you could go and screw up mine!"

"Any chance you could kiss him again or something to stun him?!" cried Wade to Nina as the enraged Nathan charged towards him. Too late - Nathan managed to grab him by the front of his suit before launching him halfway down the hall.

Wade landed with a hard _thud!_ and backwards-somersaulted out of the fall. "Wow, that was kinda fun - let's do that again!"

There was the _ring_ of metal as Nathan made a fist, ready to deliver a punch.

"Stop! Just stop!" Nina dove in just in time, grabbing Nathan's metal arm in both hands. He turned to look down at her, and his expression seemed to soften some.

"Hey, I bet you're so small he could lift you off the ground with just that one arm," stated Wade. "Give it a try!"

Domino, Ellie and Yukio appeared, having come out of the library to witness the showdown.

"Hi Wade!"

"Hi Yukio!"

"I told you Cable would kill you when he found out!" she warned.

"That's why I helped him," stated Ellie.

"Well, hey, it's not all bad," Wade was saying, trying to cover his guilty ass, which he stuck up in the air as he pushed himself to his feet. "I mean, you've got half of your family here, right? More than half, if you include yourself. I don't see what's wrong with this one." He gestured to Nina.

"I can't just go and replace her, you idiot," snapped Nathan. "That would screw with the whole timeline and the future I just fixed, no thanks to you. And I'm not even born yet, my parents are young adults here in this house right now." He lowered his voice when he said the last part.

"Wait, how old are you?" Wade asked Nina, now that it was evident that Cable wasn't even born yet in this time. "So you're old but you're young, you don't understand modern references, and you're on language watch - you're the Captain America of X-Force! Ooo, I know, I'm now going to call you 'Grandma'!"

"I'd honestly prefer 'Shorty'."

"Don't call her that," stepped in Nathan, fist still clenched.

Nina didn't have time to tell Nathan to stop doing that for Wade stepped in. "Well, like she says, the future isn't set-" Nathan's metal fist went around Wade's neck.

"STOP!" Nina shoved the two apart. She turned to her future husband first. "Nathan, you can't blame him for doing what he did, it was the same as you did." Then she turned to her friend. "But Wade, you really should have asked first. I mean, you could have done some serious damage to the timeline."

"No kidding," mumbled Nathan. "Now I'm stuck here for God knows how long-"

"But hey, you could be stuck in worse places! And you're with the X-Men!" chimed Wade.

"Oh screw the X-Men!" snapped Nathan.

Nina gave a hurt gasp. "You take that back! I take offense to that!"

They were interrupted then by an annoying ringing.

"Oh! That would be me-" Wade held up a gloved finger as he fished into the pocket of his suit and withdrew a flip-phone. "What convenient timing. Deadpool here," he answered. "Oh goody!" He paused to listen to the person on the other end of the line. "I'll tell the team to suit up." He shut the phone and pocketed it. "That was Weasel, he got a tip: sounds like there's trouble just outside of town, some illegal arms dealers packing up and sending out some sort of intense, high-tech weapons that I personally can't wait to get my hands on!"

"I thought the whole mission was to keep the weapons out of the wrong hands," Domino mumbled to Nina.

"So that's our cue to suit up and head out. Go X-Force!" He gave the team's crossed-arms gesture that he had established. "Since I'm already suited up, I'll go and get our trainee. See you at the X-Jet in twenty." With that he turned to leave.

Nathan stopped him by grabbing the front of his suit in his metal fist. "Don't think for a second that this is over. You're going to fix this mess you've made or so help me-"

"Oh good, I do so enjoy our time together." Wade headed off before Nathan could say or do anything else.

* * *

"Do you think you can fix it, Hank?" Nina asked. In the twenty minutes they had before meeting the team for the mission, she had suggested Nathan take the device to the X-Men's tech genius.

Hank examined the device. "Wow, I can't believe this can really turn time-" His head snapped up when Nathan cleared his throat. "Well, it might not be exactly the same design as before-"

"As long as it gets me back home, I don't care," Nathan stated.

"O-okay, then." Hank adjusted his glasses. "Yeah, I should be able to do it. I'll get started on it right away. I will forewarn you though, this is probably going to take a long time."

Nathan gritted his teeth. "Just fix it."

Hank nodded and went to go look for some parts and tools for the device.

Despite still feeling the sting of his offensive comment about the X-Men, Nina couldn't help but sympathize with Nathan. The poor man looked so broken, more than before. "I'm sorry."

He sighed. "It's not your fault."

"No, it's not. But I'm still sorry."

He just sighed and stared longingly down at the beyond-broken device.

"I guess we'd better get to the mission. See you at the jet," she said, before leaving him and going to suit up.

* * *

"Once we reach our destination, we'll be pairing off!"

The X-Force team – Domino, Cable, Colossus, Russell, and Nina – sat in the jet listening to Wade who was standing at the front giving instructions.

"Why are you shouting?" called Domino.

"So you can hear me over the sound of the engine!"

"We can all hear you!" Nina informed him.

"Clearly!" added Domino.

"Just wanted to be sure! Now, as Team Leader, I have already taken the liberty of making the pairs-"

"Why is he the leader?" Doms whispered to Nina who agreed.

"-Make sure you stay with your buddy for the duration of the mission. Big Guy, you're with me-" Poor Colossus was hunched down so that he could fit without hitting his head on the ceiling of the jet. "-Doms, since you're lucky and all, I'm placing the trainee in your safe, capable hands." Domino and Russell high-fived. "Which leaves-" Wade dramatically whipped his head to face Nina and Nathan. "Try and stay focused on the mission, you two, instead of each other." He made a heart with his hands.

"Shouldn't be a problem," she mumbled.

"You hear that, Thanos?"

Nathan just grunted in response.

Colossus landed the jet in the forest surrounding the targeted warehouse so that it would be easier to sneak in.

As they were exiting the jet Nina turned and nearly bumped into the toned chest of Future-Hubby. "Oh, sorry."

"It's okay. Go ahead." He waved his arm, gesturing for her to go ahead of him.

"Oh no, you were first." She waved him on.

"Naw, it's okay, ladies first-"

"Oh my God, just fucking kiss already and let's go!"

Both just stared at Wade for a moment before she stepped off the jet, Nathan following close behind.

"Make sure you remember to stick with your buddy!" Wade called after them.

 _Haha, oh Wade, he just won't leave them alone ;) Planning some humour for the next chapter, so stay tuned! And haha, I definitely want to make more Thanos jokes! ;) Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!_


	3. 3

3.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Baby, I Love Your Way_ \- Big Mountain**

"Hey, Future-boy," Nina called.

 _"More like Lover-boy."_

"Shut up, Wade!"

She heard Wade snickering over the radio. She sighed and blew her bangs out of her eyes.

Each pairing had entered the giant warehouse from a different point. She and Nathan headed around the side.

Once they were inside, Nathan passed her and began walking ahead. He had his large gun already in his hands, ready. He was walking unbearably slow, extremely cautious. With every creak and bump that echoed through the warehouse he stopped, assessed, and then motioned that it was alright to continue.

"I've been doing this since the '60s, you know," she informed him in a whisper. "I'd say that's good experience. I know what I'm doing."

"I know," he assured her. "Just good to be extra careful."

"Are you always this over-protective?"

He sighed heavily. "I thought so, but I guess it wasn't enough. I mean, we always knew my job was dangerous, and could have consequences, but-" He broke off to sigh again. "I just never imagined it would cost me anything, let alone everything." She had to admit that had gotten serious really fast, so much so it caught her off guard. Who knew sneaking through a warehouse on a mission was the best time for this conversation? "Now I know I've got to be even more careful, especially here and now. If something happens to you here then that'll affect the future. And if I lose you, then I lose Hope-"

 _"Aww, you give him hope!"_

"I'm talking about our daughter, stay out of it!" Nathan snapped back at the radio. Nina felt a little uneasy knowing the others could hear this too.

Nathan's voice lowered and softened again as he turned back to speaking to her. "Basically, if I lose you, I lose everything."

She let out a breath. "Wow, talk about pressure." His words caused her stomach to tie itself into tight, uneasy knots. Talk about pressure, indeed.

They fell silent, and she was glad. Nina was so consumed by her thoughts of what he had just told her and how much she and their future together obviously meant to him that she walked right into him when he stopped suddenly. He held a finger to his lips, even though both were still quiet, and pointed up.

Above them, on a metal bridge, armed guards stood, surveying from above. Nathan motioned for her to follow him as they backed into the shadows. Both with their dark suits, the shadows swallowed them right up.

"Alright," she whispered. "I think it's best if we divide and conquer-"

 _Beep, beep, beep - BOOM!_

Already ahead of her, though not thinking on the same lines, Nathan had triggered one of his futuristic grenades. This one gave off a small explosion, mostly sound and smoke, but it caught the guards' attention, and distracted them long enough for Nathan to start shooting at them.

The men hurried down from their elevated positions, some running down the stars while others jumped down, all swarming Nathan.

The other team members were speaking over the radio, but Nina couldn't hear them over the ring of gunfire. He may have been outnumbered, but the guards were no match for Nathan with his top fighting skills, futuristic weapons, and metal arm full of gadgets. Nina knew she should help him, but there really wasn't any window of opportunity for her to step in. That and she was rather shocked.

Joining the sound of gunfire were pained cries and bones cracking and snapping as Nathan brutally fought his way through the guards. Nina didn't want to watch the graphic scene, but she also couldn't look away, too frozen to move.

When the last guard fell to the ground with a heavy crash, Nathan turned to find Nina, jaw-dropped, wide-eyed, and standing rigid. He was just about to ask if she was alright when she blinked and shuddered.

"That was awful!" she cried. "Gritty! Brutal!" Finally she tore her gaze away. "Is that what they taught you at future military school?" _You should have studied at the mansion!_

"I didn't go to school. No, I'm thorough. I have a job, I finish it."

"Yeah, but you didn't have to-" She broke off, not wanting to argue further over their obviously clashing morals. "Let's just go." She stepped ahead of him down the path he had cleared for them.

* * *

With the next group of guards they encountered, Nina tried to take out as many as she could to avoid Nathan brutally killing them all. She knocked them down with energy - best let the authorities bring them to justice.

She had to admit that she and Nathan made a pretty good team when it came to combat. She felt - knew - she could trust him.

Feeling her presence right there beside him, fighting side by side, Nathan could have sworn he was back in the future. They were always a team, during missions, in life, and in love. And seeing how they quickly took down the guards together, nothing could change that, not even the separation of time. The way wisps of hair clung to her now sweaty forehead, the shine of excitement in her already bright eyes at having emerged victorious, even the way she waved her hands around casting energy (which he liked to jokingly imitate just to make her laugh) were all so familiar, all things he loved so much about her, them and more. Usually after a successful mission they would embrace, happy to see each other make it out safe, and do something in celebration of their victory. But Nathan knew that neither was an option this time. She was right there and yet just out of reach. He had faced a lot of pain throughout his life, but this pain was crushing, unbearable, and even more so now that he knew he couldn't return home until the device was completely fixed, however long that may be.

The guards they had just taken down were guarding a large set of doors. Nina phased the two of them through, finding they were in a large room filled with crates of what they assumed to be the weapons.

Hearing voices ahead the two crept closer, using the towers of crates for cover. They couldn't see or hear very well, however, so the only solution was to risk going closer. They squeezed into a tight, narrow corner behind stacks of crates of various heights and crouched down. They could hear a bit better but now their view was blocked, so Nina phased a small hole through the crates, big enough so they could watch what was happening, but hopefully small enough not to be noticed by the arms dealers.

Five men were standing around a table covered in weapons which glowed with energy - high-tech indeed. You certainly wouldn't want those getting into the wrong hands, like Doms had said.

Nathan held up his metal arm, which glowed to life. He activated the scanner and held it close to the tiny void she had made. After a moment, he gave a heavy sigh.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"Those aren't just weapons - they reality-threatening. Powerful enough to create destructive voids."

"But how could they get the power for that?"

He shrugged. "Warping reality through technology? Which is dangerous in itself."

She nodded. Her powers were based on natural reality, and were dangerous enough, let alone artificial reality. "Yikes, it would seem like anything is possible nowadays." Sometimes she missed the old technology of the '60s and '70s. It definitely seemed a lot simpler.

"Just wait till the future," he said, as if having read her thoughts.

They fell silent again and watched as the men began to pack up the weapons, ready to deal their products. The energy that powered them was so strong that the glow even shone through the sealed cases they were placed in. Definitely a bright, artificial-looking light. Plus, the machines hummed and whirred, like they were overpowering.

Since it was a small space for both of them to be squished into, they were partially pressed together. Nathan knelt behind her as he was a little taller, giving her the best view through the void.

Nina tried to shift a little in her crouched position. "Could you please move your gun?" she whisper-requested.

"I already put it away." Indeed, she saw it was resting against his back.

"I'm leaning against something, it's uncomfortable."

There was a pause. "Sorry," he said.

"For what?" She was genuinely confused. He didn't reply.

Suddenly, it hit. She whipped around to face him with the realization. "Oh my God, OH MY GOD!" She jumped up and backed away and in doing so bumped him. He stumbled back into some of the crates which wobbled before crashing to the ground. If the arms dealers hadn't already been aware of their presence from her shouting, they certainly were now.

"Over there!" they yelled.

"Get down!" Nathan dove at her and shoved her to the ground just as the men began blindly firing into the crates, shielding her with his body and shielding them both with his arm's shield.

"Move!" she shrieked.

"Stay down!" he countered.

"Stop ordering me what to do! AND MOVE!"

Wade was howling with laughter over the radio while Nina was dying of major embarrassment.

" _Can we keep things appropriate, please_ ," came Colossus's heavy accent. " _We have a child in our midst."_ Right, everyone could hear them, the whole team.

" _I'm fourteen!_ " cried Russell.

 _"Exactly!"_

 _"I thought Wade said to focus on the mission?"_ Domino interjected. Nina could hear the joking hint of her tone.

 _"Everyone relax, chill out, calm down. It's just an erection."_

There was a chorus of _"WADE!"_ from the other team members, including Nina.

"What the?" The men armed with machine guns had come around the crates, only to see her and Nathan in their current position.

She blasted them with energy, sending them flying back and allowing her and Nathan to scramble to their feet and flee.

"I cannot believe that happened!" she wailed.

"You're my wife!" he hissed back.

"NOT YET!"

"Well excuse me, but that's my body's natural response to me being so close to the woman I love!"

"Oh my God!"

Distracted by their conversation, they didn't realize another armed guard was there until he had them at gunpoint.

The guard stopped and lowered his gun slightly. "Hey, you two make a cute couple."

"Oh for the love of-" Nina blasted him.

Despite the interruption, the team managed to take down the rest of the guards and alert the authorities. Once the police arrived, X-Force was off.

"Not a word, not a peep, not a sound," Nina said to Wade.

Her request was met by a burst of loud laughter.

She sighed and blew her bangs out of her eyes in frustration. "I hate you. You're a horrible friend."

* * *

 _"A group of illegal arms dealers were apprehended yesterday just outside of the city limits. Police say..."_

The group sat in the living room back at the mansion watching the coverage of the mission on TV.

"Not bad for the aftermath," remarked Doms.

"Not bad at all. In fact, I would call it an afterglow! Good work team!" Wade clapped his hands together. "Yay! I can't wait for our next mission!"

"I've been thinking: maybe it's not a good idea for me to be going on X-Force missions anymore," Nina wondered aloud. "Maybe I'll just stick with the X-Men."

Wade wouldn't hear of it. "What?! It's only been like two weeks!"

"Well apparently-" She lowered her voice. "I'm too distracting." All eyes fell on Nathan, who glared silently back.

If Wade was anything, it wasn't discreet. "No, we need you. Pirate-man here just needs to control his obvious arousal when he's around you."

There was silence amongst the group.

Nina blew her bangs out of her eyes. "Why, whenever you say something, it makes it so much worse?"

"Since when does that ever happen?"

 _Haha, Nina can't possibly get more embarrassed after this, right? ;) Just kidding, I have lots in store for them! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	4. 4

4.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Back In Time_ \- Huey Lewis & The News**

"Guess who's gonna be a dad!" Wade burst into the mansion kitchen where Nina and Domino were cooling off after a workout and Russell was doing homework. They gave a collective gasp.

"Yup, we're pregnant! Well, Vanessa is, I'm not."

"Congratulations, Wade. That's so exciting!" commented Nina.

"Thanks! And I know, right?! And, to celebrate, we'd like to have you all over for dinner to spread the exciting news!"

"To people who already know?" said Domino.

"Well you three will already know. But Al will be there, and also Weasel. And of course, Colossus, and Vanessa insisted that I invite his sassy trainee cause they helped save her when Francis abducted her. Which means I'll also have to invite Yukio, but I don't have a problem with that cause she's great! And of course Dopinder will be there, and the whole X-Force team. And Russell, I know you're still technically a trainee, but you're invited too as part of the team."

"Yes!" Russell cheered.

"So you all come on over to our apartment at six-thirty tomorrow for dinner and the grand reveal."

"Try to keep it a secret till then," Domino advised him.

"Sounds great. Would you like us to bring anything?" asked Nina.

"Naw, just your lovely selves!"

"That's doable." Doms grinned.

Wade then turned to Nina. "Hey, you haven't seen Future Hubby around, have you? Got to invite him too - can't invite the rest of the team and not him, that would just be crappy of me! Plus Ness wants to meet him, after he saved me and all."

"I really wish you wouldn't call him that."

"Why not? It's the truth, isn't it?"

"I know, but-"

Doms slung an arm around Nina's shoulders. "Someone's still a little embarrassed about what happened during the mission the other day."

"More like mortified," Nina corrected.

"Why would you be embarrassed, or 'mortified'? It's not like you were the one who got all aroused in the middle of the mission and called out for it."

"I didn't call him out, I panicked!"

"Why?"

"Because I barely know him, and I wasn't expecting that during a mission! How would you feel if a guy you barely knew got 'all aroused in the middle of the mission' because of you?"

Wade lay a hand on his chest. "I would be honoured!"

She sighed. "I don't know why I try talking to you about this stuff."

Wade chuckled, coming around to her other side and putting an arm around her shoulders too. "Here's a little piece of advice: It can only get better from here." He placed a quick kiss to her temple. "Now, I gotta run - got some illegal drug deals to stop. So long!" He jumped and clicked his heels and was gone.

* * *

"Yay, the rest of the ladies are here!" cheered Vanessa when Nina and Domino arrived. "Hi Nina! And you must be Domino, the lucky one. Wade's told me all about you."

"I bet he has."

"Come on in!" After hugging them both, Vanessa waved them inside where they found Al, Weasel, Dopinder, Colossus, Ellie, and Yukio already present.

 _Pop!_ A bottle cork shot right in front of their faces across the room, striking the wall. "My bad!" called Wade.

"It's good to see you, Ness, alive and well." Nina hugged Vanessa again.

"Thanks. Yeah Wade's told me about what happened. Sounds pretty crazy."

"Yeah, it was. Is. Still is."

"Yeah. He also told me that your super hot cyber-soldier husband from the future showed up. What's with that?"

Nina blew her bangs out of her eyes. Unbelievable. "Of course he did."

"Well I can't wait to meet him! You think he'll be here tonight?"

"I'm not sure. It doesn't really seem like his kind of thing, he's not very social. But Wade invited the whole team, so who knows?" She shrugged. "Congratulations, by the way," she added, nodding to Vanessa's belly, and happy to change the subject.

"Thanks!" The other woman grinned and lay a hand on her stomach. "Wade was too excited to keep it quiet until tonight. Hopefully there's still at least someone here who doesn't know yet for the 'grand reveal'."

"It's very exciting."

"Yeah, it is."

Shortly after, once dinner was ready, everyone gathered around the table. Nina's seat was between Doms and Russell. Wade had made name cards for the place settings, hers reading, _Which Witch is Which?_ making her chuckle. Oh Wade, so creative.

An empty place was set across from her. Reaching over she plucked the name card and read it:

 _Back-to-the-Future Man_.

So she and Nathan 'just happened' to be sitting across from each other. This was Wade's doing, it had his name written all over it, though it sounded like Vanessa was in full support too.

But Nathan still wasn't here, so she didn't worry about it.

The food was brought out and everyone helped themselves.

 _Ding, ding!_ Everyone turned to the head of the table where Wade had tapped his glass.

"Did he just tap his glass with his knife?" Doms whispered to Nina.

"Of course he did."

"If I could have your attention, please. Thank you. First of all, thank you all for being here tonight-" Nina eyed the empty chair across from her. "-Before we start eating - although I see most of you have already dug in - Ness and I have an exciting announcement to make." Wade reached for Vanessa's hand and gave it a squeeze, and her a smile.

Just as he opened his mouth to continue, there came a knock at the door.

"Oh, well now who could that be?" He went over to the door. "As if on cue-"

He opened the door to reveal none other than Nathan Summers.

Wade gave an excited gasp. "Lover-boy, you're here! Oh, we missed you! Now the gang's all here!"

"Get out of the way, Wade, and let him inside," laughed Vanessa, also going over to greet their guest. "You must be Nathan, from the future, right? I've heard all about you."

"Uh, yeah, yeah, that's me." Nathan looked down. He appeared shy. "You must be Vanessa."

"I am! Thank you, for everything that you did to save Wade." She gave him a hug. He looked startled for a moment before returning it.

"No problem. Don't regret it yet - too much." He glanced at Wade before turning back to her. "Sorry I'm late."

"Oh, no worries, we were just starting."

"I brought you this." Nathan held out the bottle of wine that had been tucked under his arm.

"Oooo, you've got good taste!" exclaimed Wade, examining the label. "I'll get some glasses."

"Come, have a seat with the others," Vanessa offered.

"Yes, perfect timing, my friend," Wade added. "We were just about to make our announcement, the whole point of this dinner thing. And to see all of you lovely folks of course." There were some chuckles. Ellie rolled her eyes while Yukio waved. "Go on, have a seat. You're right across from Future Wifey."

"Uh, thanks, but I can't stay. I just wanted to drop that off and meet the woman Wade nearly died for." Nathan nodded. "He loves you a lot."

Vanessa looked surprised but touched by his words. "Yeah, he does."

"You risk the most for those you love."

Everyone seemed a little surprised by such tender words falling from the lips of one of the top scariest X-Force members.

"But you at least gotta stay for our announcement! Don't want to be out of the circle of gossip!" Wade and Vanessa grasped hands again, and paused for dramatic effect while they faced their guests. "We're having a baby!"

Excited cries erupted around the table - Colossus looked choked up, Yukio thrilled, while Ellie looked shocked. Nina and Doms shared a smile.

"Thank you, thank you," said Wade, soaking up the congratulations. "That's right, we are officially parents-to-be!" He raised his glass. "So a toast, to us. Here here." He raised his glass and then downed it in one gulp.

Nathan now had his back turned and was already heading for the door.

"Hey, Future-boy, where are you going?" called Wade. "The party's just starting!"

"I can't stay," Nathan repeated, the words sounding like they were spoken through gritted teeth this time. "Congratulations." On that note, he was gone.

A slightly awkward silence followed.

"What was that about?" mumbled Doms. Nina could only shake her head, eyes glued to the door where Nathan had just stormed out.

"Who knows. The guy's a mysterious figure," said Wade as he and Vanessa took their seats again. "Anyway, on the bright side, more food for us! Everybody dig in!"

 _I'm excited for 'Dark Phoenix' to see how it will influence this story! :) hopefully we get another trailer soon!_

 _Flashbacks in the next chapter! ;D Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!_


	5. 5

5.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _I've Been Waiting For You_ \- Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, and Julie Walters ( _Mamma Mia! Here We Go_ _Again_ version)**

"What's with the bear?" a little boy from the mansion asked. His eyes were a bright electric blue behind big glasses.

Nathan looked down at the bear sitting reassuringly at his belt. "It's my daughter's."

"Oh. Why do you have it then?"

"I borrowed it."

"Why?"

Ah, kids and their never-ending questions. He missed it with Hope. "It's supposed to be good luck."

"Oh." The boy wrinkled his nose. "Is it?"

Nathan sighed. "Don't know yet, kid. I don't know."

Back in his room, alone, Nathan held the bear up to his lips as he often did, inhaling deeply the scent of home. Now that he had fixed the future, the bear no longer smelled of blood and smoke, but the lingering smell of home, familiar, rewarding, intoxicating. It was fading, but he hoped it would last until he was really home again.

Hope. He would read her stories, not just before bed but whenever she wanted, and would go for walks with her perched up on his shoulders, excitedly pointing out everything she saw. He would help her with her powers, train her when the time came.

Maybe he would even partake in some of their singing and dancing to Nina's old records.

Maybe.

He would be happy just to watch his girls smiling and laughing while they danced around the living room.

And Nina – okay, he would dance with her, but to a slow song as he held her close and they swayed together.

He could always count on thinking of his girls to put a smile on his face, even when they were so far away. He guessed many times of having to leave them to go on missions had helped with this, coping with the separation.

Although he wasn't coping very well now.

All this talk of kids triggered his memory to six years ago when Nina had given him the best surprise.

The reveal she chose was really very clever.

 _"Nate, close your eyes."_

 _"Okay..." He looked confused, but complied._

 _"Now, don't use your telepathy until l tell you to."_

 _"Okay... Neen, what's going on?"_

 _"You'll see." Despite his eyes being closed, he could still see her smiling as she spoke. That was how well he knew her._

 _"Alright, you can use your telepathy now."_

 _"What should I concentrate on?"_

 _"You'll know."_

 _He felt her take his hand, his metal hand, in both of hers and lift it, until it came to rest on the soft fabric of her shirt - the stomach of her shirt._

 _Suddenly, his head filled with thoughts, very sparse, scattered thoughts, not even fully-formed thoughts, but the beginnings of them. A developing mind._

 _His eyes shot open to see her grinning broadly, eyes glistening with tears._ _His arms were around her instantly, his lips on hers, tears in his eyes too._

 _They had tried several times now for a baby without any luck. Nina wasn't even sure if it was possible for her to conceive, since she wasn't exactly human, her power set, and with her very extended lifespan. But here it was, proof that they could._

 _"I never thought I'd be a mother," she had said anxiously before they tried the first time, which had ultimately led to no success. "What if I'm no good?"_

 _"Neen, think of all those kids at the school that look up to you. You're like a mother figure to them. To some, you're the closest they have to a mother. And they love you. And so will our kid."_

 _That wonderful surprise had been followed by another a few weeks later, though less exciting._

 _Nathan stood before the bedroom mirror, shirtless, closely examining the virus that was slowly taking over his body, turning skin to metal. He did this often, and it always struck him when he found new metal, like he had now._

 _It was now beginning to spread from his chest, slowly creeping over to the other shoulder that wasn't already affected. He traced it with his fingers, wincing although it were sensitive skin._

 _Nina entered their bedroom then, already in her pajamas. "Everything alright?"_

 _He sighed, leaning on the counter and looking away from his reflection. "It's spreading, Neen."_

 _She heard the obvious concern in his voice and came over. "Let's see."_

 _Reluctantly, he turned away from the mirror and to face her. She gently reached out and touched the new metal. He always found this soothing._

 _"Does it hurt?" She always asked this._

 _"A little."_

 _The creasing of his brow told her that it hurt more than 'a little'. She always imagined a techno-organic virus eating away at you would be painful. She held up her hand, waving her fingers before it, using energy to hopefully ease some of the pain. The tension fading from his face told her it did, as well as the content sigh he gave._

 _"What if they inherit it?" he wondered aloud in obvious_ _concern, placing his hand on her belly which had just begun to grow, though still barely noticeable_. Now it was his turn to stress over what kind of parent he would be for their child.

 _"Maybe they will, but yours didn't start showing until later on. I don't think we should worry about it."_

 _"I hope it's not all they inherit from me."_

 _"It won't be," she assured him, giving him a kiss to emphasize her words._

 _"What if, one day, it takes over the rest of me and, and - I'm all metal?"_

 _"That's not going to change anything, at least not about how I see you and what I feel for you." She grinned. "Then you'll always be my knight in shining armour."_

 _Even he couldn't help but chuckle at this. "Oh, you're funny."_

 _She grinned. "So you tell me."_

 _"That's how you see me?"_

 _"I see you. Nathan Summers. My husband. The man I love. And, soon-to-be father of my first child."_

 _"First?" he chuckled._

 _She chuckled too. "First, and hopefully more."_

 _A few weeks later she had begun to show more visibly. Nathan thought she looked very adorable with her little bump._

 _He loved being able to read their child's thoughts through his telepathy. The baby was no doubt very powerful if they had such clear thoughts at still such an early stage of development._

 _"Neen-" He rubbed his hand over her stomach. "-I can tell now if we're having a boy or a girl."_

 _She gasped. "Really?! Oh, tell me, tell me! Wait, don't tell me! Not yet! I want it to be a surprise! But I also want to know..." She looked terribly conflicted._

 _"I can give you a hint," he suggested. "It's either going to be a boy or a girl." He laughed when she playfully smacked his arm._

 _"Who's the funny one now?" She swatted at him._

 _"Nate," she whispered as they lay in bed, his arms around her. He loved this position, able to snuggle both her and their baby at once. "I want to know."_

 _He chuckled. He could just imagine her lying there trying to decide, the wheels spinning around in her head, caught up in the decision. "You're sure?"_

" _Yes_."

 _He snuggled closer. "A girl."_

She had let out a squeal before rolling over so that she faced him, snuggling up against his chest. Nathan found himself smiling as he recalled it, followed closely by a deep pain within his chest.

God, he missed them, so much. So much it hurt.

'What's the most pain you've ever felt?'was a question he liked to ask people he encountered on his missions, mostly in interrogations.

He knew his answer.

* * *

"Jeez, picking out baby names sure is hard," Wade remarked to the team back at the mansion. "I want our baby to have one name like 'Cher' or 'Beyoncé'."

"Usually kids only have one name, dipshit," mumbled Nathan.

"You know what I mean! Of course, those are girls names, we haven't been having any luck with boys names. There's so many options! Looks like we'll have a large family-"

 _Crack!_ Wade was cut off when the glass in Nathan's hand broke from clenching his fist too hard, causing the others to jump.

"You insensitive little shit!" Suddenly, he was in Wade's face. "Don't deny that you're doing all this just so you can rub it in."

"Whoa, chill out. I'm just sharing my excitement with everyone."

"Well I wish you wouldn't."

"Ouch, killjoy much. Is someone a little jealous?"

Nathan growled. "Just keep it to yourself." With that, he stormed off.

Wade hopped up to sit on the counter and turned to Nina. "So, you wanna tell me why, in the future, you marry Mr. Moody?"

"I don't know, ask my future self."

She gave it a few minutes before going and knocking on Nathan's door, hopefully giving him some time to cool off.

"It's me," she called after knocking, in case he thought she was Wade or one of the others.

Moments later, he opened the door. "Go ahead," he said. "Tell me I overreacted."

"I wasn't going to. You have reason to be upset, but I don't think you should destroy Wade's excitement because of it." No response. "Are you alright?"

"Not really."

"You want to talk about it?" She could tell he was genuinely hurt. Usually he was good at hiding his emotions (unless it was anger) but she could clearly see it written all over his face.

He sighed, burying his face in his hands. "We were going to try for another kid, we wanted to have our family grow. Hope would love a sibling."

"I-I'm sorry." She didn't know what else to say. "That's why you're so bitter about Wade and Vanessa's news."

He nodded. "We both fixed our futures..."

"But only he can return to his everyday," she concluded.

He nodded again. "I think I need some time alone," he said after a pause.

She nodded and left him, pausing outside his closed door. It was at times like this where she had real mixed feelings concerning him: he was so broken, so desperate to go home, and she felt bad for him, but then he would turn around and be a complete jerk and utterly cold towards others, those who were trying to help him. She didn't know how to feel, how to deal with it.

Her thoughts were broken then by a soft sound coming from his room, unmistakable: crying. He was crying.

Her heart broke a little.

 _Nina's line 'I see you' was inspired by Wanda and Vision's 'I feel you' from 'Infinity War' ;)_

 _Aw, I hate torturing Nate like this! :( But there will be more flashbacks to come! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!_


	6. 6

6.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _The Power of Love -_ Huey Lewis & The News**

Nina jolted awake right as her dream reached its climax - literally.

Scrambling around in bed, disoriented, it took her a moment to realize that she was in her room, in bed, very much alone, and it was the middle of the night.

Her heart was thundering rapidly, her chest heaving with heavy breaths and her hair clinging to her sweaty face, her clothes stuck to the rest of her equally sweaty body. Eww.

She had been in one of those deep sleeps in which the strangest, most bizarre dreams occurred, the kinds of dreams you remembered immediately afterwards.

Having mostly recovered, she was struck by another jolt, this time of realization, when what had happened in her dream to cause this sudden awakening and state suddenly came flooding back all at once. She buried her face in her hands.

Climax indeed. In her dream, she had been with Nathan of all people, and things were getting - well, heated between them. Luckily she woke up before too much happened between them. At least so she told herself.

She let out a groan, collapsing back onto the pillow heavily. What the hell was that? What could have and/or would have provoked her to dream something like that? Sure, Nathan had appeared in a few of her dreams lately - more than she would like to admit - but she guessed it was because he had recently shown up in her life and drastically changed it.

And it was never like _that_ in those dreams, and usually Wade and Doms and some of the others made appearances too.

What made it worse was that, while she was now dying of shame over the dream, her body had subconsciously enjoyed it, evidently, if her rapidly beating heart and intense sweating were anything to go by.

Oh, God.

It was just one embarrassing thing after the next with them. One thing was for certain though: she could not, under any circumstances, let Wade find out about this.

* * *

Later that morning, after a refreshing run, while the students were either in class or training, Nina had a relaxing shower during which she had unashamedly belted out the lyrics to her favourite songs. She was still humming and basically dancing on her way back to her room wrapped in a towel, another towel wrapped around her head.

 _Bonk!_

"Oh!" Her cry had been more out of shock than of pain, but there was a faint bonking noise when her forehead pretty much slammed into something hard. Her eyes grew wide when she realized she was face-to-chest with guess who.

She was just tall enough that when they stood facing each other her eyes were chest-level to him. Upon crashing, her nose got crushed by the impact, which hurt a lot.

Both had come around the corner sharply, neither paying attention obviously, for they had crashed right into each other, before either could realize and stop the collision. Nina caught her body towel before it could fall, and he did the same, obviously on his way to the shower. Her head towel, however, slipped off and flopped to the floor at their feet.

"Sorry," both said at the same time, both also looking away from each other. Nina tried to cast her eyes on something that wasn't his toned chest, but that was difficult when it was right in front of her.

"Um, shower's free," she squeaked.

"Thanks." Nathan knew he was staring and could tell it was making her uncomfortable. Her small form was wrapped in a towel that hugged her body, and now that her head towel had fallen off her wet hair dangled around her shoulders, dripping droplets of water on her warm-toned skin. He had watched the towel fall, her hair spilling down over her shoulders like a fiery wave.

"Here-" Finally pulling his gaze away he knelt down to retrieve the smaller towel.

But she had already moved to retrieve it too, and now they both were crouching closely. As they both reached out towards the towel, their shoulders, then arms, then fingers brushed. Each touch was like a fire and he suppressed a groan.

Realizing just how close they were, both scrambled to their feet, forgetting the towel.

As they stood, Nina felt a tug on her hair. "Stop touching me!"

"I can't..." To answer, he held up his arm, her hair lifting with it.

His arm was outfitted with sliding disks of metal to make it more movable like a flesh-and-bone arm. However, these disks made it easy for things to get caught in them, including her hair.

Oh no. Oh no, no, no. This was _not_ happening.

But it was happening, much to her sheer horror and embarrassment. They were stuck together. Crashing into each other while both were barely clothed (toweled?) was embarrassing enough, and now this.

Somehow, her wet and already tangled hair had decided to knot itself around his wrist, only to slide beneath the disks and get caught. Domino would say luck was on Nina's side, but it sure didn't feel like that. It felt more like fate had decided to play a prank on them – yet another prank.

"Ouch!" she cried as her hair was yanked once more. She heard Nathan grunt and guessed that he was in a fair bit of discomfort as well, seeing as her hair was jammed in the joints of his arm.

"Hold still-" He tried to shift his wrist to relieve the hair caught within it, but his efforts were in vain. If anything, his attempt to untangle them only made it worse, with her hair now spider-webbed through the disks of his wrist and some of his fingers. Now it was tangled around and within his whole hand.

 _Flop_. They were interrupted then by what sounded like cloth hitting the floor. Nina's hand gripped her own towel tighter. "What was that?" She was almost afraid to ask.

He sighed. "My towel slipped off."

"Like completely off?"

"Yeah…"

"Oh God…" She squeezed her eyes shut, despite having her back to him. "Well pick it up!"

She felt her hair move as he moved. "I can't reach it while we're attached like this, you're going to have to get it."

" _What?!_ "

"It's closer to you."

 _Oh for the love of-_ Slowly and as carefully as she could, she crouched down. "Don't look at me!"

"I'm not looking!"

"I can feel you looking!"

"I'm not!" he insisted.

"You'd better not be!"

"I'm _not_ looking!"

Trying to pick something up off the floor with your eyes closed while your hair was stuck in someone's arm and while you were trying to keep yourself covered with a towel was very difficult, as she quickly discovered.

"Ah!" She yelped when she felt her fingers brush something. "What was that?! What did I just touch?!"

"My foot."

"Oh." Eyes still closed, her hand ran along the carpeted floor in search of his towel. That damn towel!

"To the left a little," he directed. She moved her hand over. "Too far. I think it would be easier if you turned around."

"Oh, _no!_ " Oh hell no was she doing that, not even with her eyes closed - not while he was naked!

Finally, she found the stupid thing. "Oh thank God!" She grabbed it and threw it at him. "Put it on!" She could hear him trying to do so.

"Okay," he said. "All covered now. Thanks."

"You know-" Both jumped at the familiar voice. "In the movie _The Proposal_ , Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock get into a very similar situation."

"Wade!" Of course. Of course he should catch them in this moment. This was almost worse than him finding out about her dream. Maybe it was even worse. "Where did you come from? Why are you even here?!"

"I'm always here. I'm everywhere. Always."

"That's terrifying."

"I could hear you guys so, naturally, I had to come and see what was going on." He gave a snort of laughter. "You two just can't stay away from each other, can you?"

"Hey, what's going on - oh-" Doms stopped when she saw them. "Well I think someone got lucky!"

"Why are your eyes closed?" Wade asked Nina.

"His towel fell off."

"And you didn't want to see that?"

"No!"

"Why not, weirdo?"

"Stop staring at my ass," Nathan snapped at Wade.

"It's a great ass," Wade snickered. "Too bad I didn't come up here sooner, I could have seen it uncovered. You should have done yourself a favour and peeked - you've got yourself quite the man there, Shorty."

"Could you just shut up and be helpful," she requested, still refusing to open her eyes.

She heard him chuckle, followed by the swish of metal. She dared open her eyes to see he had withdrawn one of his swords. "Ah! What are you doing?!"

"Cutting you loose."

"Don't you dare cut my hair!"

"Just trying to be helpful, like you asked. Doms, you're up."

"Alright, hold still you two." Domino stepped forward and worked her magic, and in less than a minute had them both untangled. Nina sprang away, holding her towel tightly around herself.

"Thank you." An awkward silence befell them.

"Aw, don't be too embarrassed," Wade told her. "I bet it happens all the time when you have sex. Right, Tin Man?"

Nathan just growled.

"How do you shower with all the metal?" Nina asked Nathan, honestly curious, and eager to move on from Wade's comment. "Isn't water bad for metal?"

"Oh, don't worry, he'll show you sometime," Wade told her. "Oh, and you might want to close your eyes again, unless you want a repeat of last time."

"What-" She made the mistake of looking - and caught sight of the very obvious bulge beneath Nathan's towel.

A hand flew up to shield her eyes. "Next time, I'm teleporting down the hall to and from the shower!" With that, she pushed past them and down the hall to her room. Once inside with the door firmly closed, she sank to the floor with a groan.

How ridiculous was it that she had to teleport down the hall to avoid him? That is, if she could avoid him. If only.

Fate seemed to have other plans.

 _Haha, I'm just not giving Nina and Nathan a break! What are the most embarrassing situations I can put them in? ;D And I must give credit where credit is due - the idea of hair getting caught on the metal was mentioned in another Cable story I read on a different site, (I closely examined his arm in the movie and it makes sense that stuff would get caught on it!) but_ _this whole scene was inspired by the episode in 'The Mindy Project' where Mindy and Danny get into a similar situation when her hair gets caught on his watch in the steam room, haha!_

 _Thank you so much for reading, as always, and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	7. 7

7.

 _The Future_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Hit Me With Your Best Shot_ \- Pat Benatar**

"Whoa!" Nina gave a yelp as she fell back and hit the mat once again, groaning with the impact.

"Come on," Nate urged her. "Try again."

So they did, but she didn't last long, and it ended, once again, with her flopping down onto the mat, landing hard.

They had the training room to themselves, which Nina was glad for, for she didn't want anyone besides her boyfriend to witness her embarrassment. Her boyfriend witnessing it was embarrassment enough.

With a frustrated groan she smacked the mat. She was sweaty, tired, her muscles were sore, and she wasn't making any progress.

"No one likes a sore loser." Nate was staring down at her wearing a smirk that made her both more frustrated and flustered.

"Easy for you to say, super-soldier, you've won every time." She blew her bangs out of her eyes in her classic frustrated manner.

Nathan had expressed a concern about her fighting abilities, well, more like lack of. The whole reason he had come to the mansion was to help everyone train with the knowledge he gained in the far future, and he wanted to make sure she could defend herself in more ways than one, especially in hand-to-hand combat, and without the use of her powers. She appreciated his efforts, but she obviously wasn't making much progress. Nate remained confident in her though. Sweetheart.

The next time he swung at her, she blocked the blow with a fistful of energy.

"No powers," he reminded her of the rule he had set for this training session.

"You said to use my strengths," she countered.

"Your powers aren't your only strength. The sooner you realize that, the better." She wasn't sure if she fully agreed with the first part, that her powers were not her only strength. They seemed like all she had. They were who she was.

"What if you find yourself in a situation where you're unable to use them? You've got to be prepared."

"Unlikely, as my powers are different from everyone else's so it's improbable to assume that I would ever be caught without them." Reality was a complicated thing.

He chuckled. "Smart ass."

"Yeah, one which I keep landing on because you've been kicking it this whole time."

"It's a great ass, though." His smirk grew.

She twisted around to cast a glance down at her bottom. "It is, isn't it?" She flushed at her own boldness - Wade and his own characteristic boldness must really be rubbing off on her. But she liked it, and the fact that Nathan had seemed to help bring out her bold side. She had been known to be shy and held back for so long (her complicated and unpredictably strong power set hadn't helped, and the fact that she may never come to fully understand it) and she liked these new characteristics of herself. Now that she had finally gained more control over her abilities, this had allowed for more confidence, and she liked it.

"Come on," he urged. "Let's try again."

"Fine." She got to her feet and once again stood in a fighting stance, watching him carefully.

"Concentrate."

"I am."

"Focus."

"Yup."

He swung at her; she dodged it, aiming to strike him in the side. He blocked her blow, grabbing her arm and moving it away. She twisted her arm out of his grasp, holding it up to join her other one guarding her face. _No powers, no powers._

Concentrating hard she blocked the next few fists he threw, managing to sneak under his arm and get behind him where she grabbed hold of his metal arm and kicked one leg out from underneath him, throwing him off balance. She kneed him in the gut, knocking him over the rest of the way. He fell to the mat, she landing on top of him, straddling his waist.

She stared down at him, stunned for a moment, before an adorably excited smile graced her lips and she beamed. She began to cheer. "Yes! Yes, I did it! I did it! I won! I - whoa!"

She gave another cry when he rolled out from beneath her, flipping them over so that she now lay on her back staring up at him. "Easily distracted." He shook his head in mock disappointment.

"Well excuse me for being excited that I finally beat you!"

"Yes, you did. See, I knew you could do it. You should be proud. I am."

"Thank you for believing in me," she chuckled.

"Always. Maybe you'll start believing in yourself more." He leaned down to kiss her.

"Hey!" The accusing voice of Wade broke them apart. "I thought you said you were training! Or is that key-word for something else? Looks like I might have to clean off those mats before I use them."

Nina wrinkled her nose. "Eww. Relax, Wade. We are training," she told him with a roll of her eyes.

"Uh huh, sure. If that's what you want to call it. Whatever it is, hurry it up, there's other people who want to train too, you know!"

Nathan gave a frustrated sigh as Wade left. He was tired of Wade always interrupting their sweet, private moments. Wade always seemed to know exactly when to interrupt. Hell, he was just tired of Wade altogether.

Nina chuckled, knowing full well of his frustration and annoyance towards the red-suited merc. "Come on, we had a good workout. He's right, let's free up the room for someone else to use. Besides, I could use a shower."

"Me too," he agreed. He put his arm around her. "Shower together?"

She grinned. "I was hoping you might say that. I was thinking the same - glad we're on the same page."

 _Ah, so different from their relationship now ;) The first of our flashback/flash-forward chapters :) I was going to do this when Nathan was remembering Nina telling him she was pregnant with Hope, but then decided to make it a memory instead._

 _Not sure if the plot seems a little slow so far, sorry if it does! I want to establish the emotional conflict before the big action conflict comes along ;) Nina has a lot to deal with even before the main threat arrives! Also, a familiar and favourite character will soon make an appearance, within the next couple of chapters! (I'm going to try and update quickly because I'm excited about the next chapters - lots happens! ;) As always, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	8. 8

8.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)_ \- Eurythmics**

Nina slammed awake, once again roused from sleep by another very explicit dream featuring herself and Nathan. This one had carried on further this time than the last one before she awoke. She found herself once again sweaty and with a thundering heart, gripping the bed sheets in tight fists around which little swirls of energy were forming.

She was losing it. Losing control. All because of a stupid dream.

Groaning in frustration, she got out of bed and stumbled sleepily to the bathroom to splash some water on her burning face. She looked up in the mirror; her hot and sweaty reflection stared back. What was up with her? This had to stop.

"Rough night?" Wade asked her, eyeing her wrinkled clothes, messy hair, and the large, dark bags beneath her eyes when she entered the kitchen later that morning after a mostly sleepless rest of the night.

"I couldn't sleep," she explained, yawning as soon as her mouth opened. "Kept tossing and turning."

Wade continued to eye her as she got herself something to drink. "Wait..."

She turned to face him. "What?"

"Wait, wait, wait."

"What?"

"Wait, wait-"

"What is it?!"

"Did you and Future Hubby, like, _do it_ last night."

There was a loud snorting sound as she half-inhaled, half-spit out her mouthful of water, most of it spilling down her front and soaking her shirt. She began furiously coughing, Doms rubbing her back to help sooth her.

"WADE!" she wailed when the choking had subsided some.

He held up his hands in a surrendering manner. "What?" he asked innocently.

She threw the dish cloth she had been drying herself with at him. It struck him in the face and plopped into his lap and then to the floor when he failed to catch it. "No! I literally couldn't sleep!" Did he have to involve Nathan in everything? And sex? Nathan _and_ sex?

"Bad dream?" asked Doms.

"Lucky guess. Yes, actually."

"Oh, do tell. And don't leave any goodies out," Wade requested.

"Usually when people have bad dreams they don't want to talk about them, genius," Doms told him.

"But talking about it can help. Go on, Shorty, spill it. We're listening." He leaned his chin on his hands and stared at Nina.

"I'd rather not."

"Oh, come on, how bad can it be?"

"It's - embarrassing..."

"Like we haven't witnessed embarrassing things happening to you, especially of late."

"Okay fine! I had a dream and Nathan was in it-" She ignored the suggestive glance Wade was giving her and hoped her blushing wouldn't betray her. "-And, well, we..." She trailed off in what she thought was a very telling manner. The others didn't seem to think so, however.

"And you guys had a big fight?" Wade guessed after a moment of both him and Domino staring back at her, confused.

"What? No-"

"You guys didn't end up getting married?" He gave a sudden gasp. "You guys didn't meet at all? I'm confused, I'm not getting where the whole embarrassment thing is coming from."

"What? No, nothing like that."

Judging by the little grin Domino was now wearing, she had caught on, had figured it out. "Oh no, Wade. I think she means a dream in which they were being I-N-T-I-M-A-T-E."

Wade looked like he was spelling out the word in his head before his eyes went wide. "Ohhhh! Sex! So I was right before - sort of. Why didn't you just say so? I was thinking you meant something way worse!"

"I knew I would regret telling you." Nina sighed. "I'm surprised you didn't catch on sooner."

"So I guess I wasn't far off when I asked why you couldn't sleep. But I thought you said it was a bad dream?"

"Yeah, it was."

"How was it bad? Ooo, wait, I got it: was it bad because the sex was really bad?"

"What? No! Do you ever stop thinking about that?"

He ignored her question, and Nina was glad. "Then how?"

"Because! I barely know him!"

"So?"

"Ugh, you just don't get it! How weird it is for me to be living in the same house, in close quarters, with a man I've only known a few weeks and yet who knows me very intimately - so intimately that we have a child in the future! He obviously knows me _very_ well and yet I don't know him at all, really."

"Well, if you're concerned about that, then let me tell you that sex is a great way of getting to know each other-"

She was very done with this conversation. "I don't want to sleep with him, Wade! That's not what I'm saying! And could we please not discuss my sex life right here, right now?" she requested - right as Nathan entered the kitchen.

"Speaking of," mumbled Wade.

She threw up her hands in exasperation. "Unbelievable!"

"Well good mornin', Handsome," Wade greeted. "We were just talking about you. Looks like you had a rough night too."

"I'm fine," Nathan stated groggily, running a hand through his hair. "Or at least I was, until you showed up."

Wade gave a hurt gasp. "Ouch!"

Nina prepared herself some tea in hopes that it would help battle her sleepiness. She was just bringing it back to her room when a voice stopped her.

"Hey, uh, Nina?"

She jumped at Nathan's voice behind her and turned to see him peeking out of his room. "Do you have a moment? Could I talk to you?" His voice was kind of high-pitched and he wouldn't quite meet her eyes.

"Um, yeah, sure." Confused, she stepped past him into the room, he stepping out of the way to let her pass. Her confusion only grew when he shut the door behind her. She noticed Hope's bear perched next to the bed on the nightstand. "Is everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah." He cleared his throat, partially because he actually had to and partially because he was embarrassed and this was already awkward. "I couldn't help but overhear you this morning, talking to Wade and Domino about a dream you had-"

Nina immediately felt the colour drain from her face. He must have heard them before entering the kitchen - no wonder he had looked rough.

"Oh God-" But it wasn't just that he had overheard her that was the reason he was embarrassed, she noticed - it might not even have been that. There was something else. "That's so mortifying-"

"That's not all, I'm afraid. I think I know why you had that dream..." He cleared his throat again. "I'm somewhat telepathic, from my mom, and sometimes if I don't focus enough other people can 'see' my thoughts, only other telepaths." He still wouldn't look at her. "I, uh, I've been thinking about you a lot lately, my wife you, the future you, thinking about us..."

She was starting to believe she knew where this was going. "Us as in, you mean..."

"Yeah..." A completely uncomfortable silence befell them.

"And these - memories - of us, being together... _intimately_ , and all lovey-dovey with each other, caused you to lose enough control for me to see them?"

"Yeah, I think cause I was thinking about you, you got sent part of the memory too, even though you technically haven't experienced that memory yet. We might not have even been 'seeing' the same memory, but my memory of you, of us, triggered your dream."

"Wait, so was it a memory of us you were remembering, or were you just picturing us..." She trailed off. She had avoided death for thousands of years but right now she thought she just might die of embarrassment. "Actually, you know what, don't tell me. I don't want to know."

"Whatever dream you had may have been triggered by me thinking about you, about us," he summed up. So he was basically saying, 'I was dreaming about you too.' Although his was conscious, while hers had been subconscious.

 _Yeah, you thinking very private thoughts about us,_ she thought.

"We communicate telepathically all the time back home," he added. "I tried communicating with you, the future you, since being here. Doesn't work."

She was just nodding distantly, slowly absorbing all this.

"Sorry..." he offered.

"Don't be, I guess. I mean, she is your wife - I'm your wife... You love her - me - and miss me - her - no, me..." She didn't know which was worse: the embarrassing mission, their whole hair-caught-on-wrist incident, or this latest embarrassing episode.

It felt as though she had accidentally walked in on him sharing a very private, very intimate moment with his wife - this was awkward enough, but the catch? She _was_ his wife. This was all so complicated, and seemed to only be becoming more so!

"Just try and keep it to yourself..." She had no idea what to say. _Thanks for telling me?_ She decided not to mention that this dream thing had happened before.

"I thought I was."

"Good to know, I guess..." Neither said anything else - neither had anything else to say.

Once she left, Nathan sighed and buried his madly-flushing face in his hands, collapsing onto the bed.

He had seen how uncomfortable she had been. It was weird for her, he knew (also from hearing her tell the others this morning). It was weird for her that he knew her so well and they were married for him, but to her they barely knew each other, barely had any sort of relationship at all.

And now this.

Great, he was screwing everything up, only succeeding in making her uncomfortable, which he never meant to do, ever. Now he couldn't even think about his family - he'd managed to mess that up too.

 _I was trying to decide about the song for this chapter, and couldn't help myself, haha! Sweet dreams, Nina! ;D Super excited about the next chapter! ;) Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!_


	9. 9

9.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _The Name of the Game -_ Amanda Seyfried and Stellan Skarsgård (Mamma Mia! Version)**

The next day, after teaching her one afternoon class, Nina headed downstairs. On her way, she met up with Nathan.

"Kitchen?" he asked her after an awkward moment of silence between the two.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Me too."

They walked together in silence. The kitchen seemed further away than usual.

As they cut through the mansion's entrance hall, they found a tall figure in a leather jacket, jeans, and with slightly spiky hair standing there.

"Logan!" Nina cried, her face lighting up at the sight of him.

He smiled. "Hey, Babe."

"So nice to see you!" She embraced him in a hug and a kiss before pulling away. "Ugh, did you just have a cigar?"

"Yeah, outside before I came in."

"I can smell it, and taste it."

"Sorry."

Nathan hadn't continued on to the kitchen, and was standing there watching them, arms crossed, face stone-serious.

Logan took her hand. "Ready for our adventure?"

"Oh!" Her hands flew to her mouth as the realization hit her. "Our weekend getaway!"

"Yeah... You forgot?"

"I did! Oh Logan, I'm so sorry, that's unlike me. And I was so looking forward to it! I really need it, after the few weeks I've had. I feel awful!"

"It's alright, stuff happens. We can go another time."

"No, no, I wouldn't dream of it! We're still going!"

Logan quickly caught Nathan staring – and his close proximity. "New guy?"

"Uh, yeah..." Nina had forgotten Nathan was there too. "Logan, this is Nathan, or Cable. And Nathan, this is Logan, or Wolverine. My boyfriend."

After a moment of staring, boyfriend and future husband shook hands. Two of the most intimidating people she knew staring each other down.

"Nathan Summers, son of Scott Summers and Jean Grey," Nathan introduced himself.

"Oh-" Logan fell silent. Nina cringed. What a thing to say. "Nice, I-I'm happy for them..."

Nathan was now smiling smugly. Nina glared daggers at him. A heavy uncomfortable silence now hung in the air.

"Wade!" Nina suddenly cried, spotting the merc, glad of the distraction. "You remember, Logan, right?"

Wade didn't answer, but instead approached Logan, the eyes of his mask narrowed. He raised his middle finger and stuck it in Logan's face. "That's for copying certain parts of my movie - you know the ones," he added in a whisper-hiss, before slipping out of the room.

The trio blinked after him.

"I'm sorry, no one's being very friendly to you," Nina told Logan, resisting the urge to nudge Nathan.

"Nah, except for you, as usual." He leaned in for another kiss.

She giggled. "I'm going to run upstairs and quickly pack. Charles is in his office and I know he'd love to see you. Meet you out front in twenty minutes?"

"Sounds good. And take your time, no rush." With that, they parted ways, leaving Nathan alone in the entry hall - or so they thought.

"Ah!" She cried when the super-soldier appeared in her bedroom doorway while she was hastily packing. "What, are you stalking me now?"

"I didn't know Wolverine was coming to visit." He leaned against the door-frame, arms crossed over his broad chest.

"Well, neither did I. I forgot all about it."

"A weekend getaway," he remarked. "That sounds romantic."

"Oh, don't be like that." She looked up at him from her packing. "I'm sure it comes up in the future that I dated Logan."

"Yeah, it does. But I didn't realize it was right now."

"Well sorry for not mentioning it to you in the few weeks I've known you! I was a little too preoccupied with visions of my death, stopping you and Russell, and meeting my future husband and finding out that we have a child and whole life together! Sorry, it slipped my mind. And I'm sure you've had past girlfriends, too."

"No, I haven't actually."

"Oh, why, cause I'm your 'one true love'?"

"Yeah, actually, exactly that."

This made her stop. "Really?" He nodded. "Seriously, no others?"

He shook his head. "None."

"Oh..." _One true love..._ This added a whole new weight to an already heavy situation.

"How long are you going to be gone for?" he asked.

"Until Sunday, I have classes to teach on Monday. I'm sure you can survive without me until then. Just don't murder Wade."

"Can't make any promises. When Sunday?"

"I don't know yet."

"What are you two going to do?"

"Why are you interrogating me?! Pardon me, but it's none of your business."

"Only yeah, it kinda is. Excuse me for being jealous that my wife is going on a romantic getaway with another guy!"

"I'm not your wife, not yet." _How many times must I remind you?!_ She sighed, more of a scoff. "'I'm the son of Scott Summers and Jean Grey,'" she imitated. "Really? That hurt him, you know."

 _Good_. "Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that the guy had a thing for my mom _and_ my wife?"

"Well when you put it like that! And yes, I agree, these prolonged lifetimes make for a lot of complications, trust me, I know."

"I guess he has a thing for powerful, red-headed mutant women. How long have you two been dating?"

"None of your business!"

"I'm just curious!"

"Are you? Still sounds like you're interrogating me."

"I'm not interrogating, I just want to know! Were you dating before we met?"

"Yes! We've been together longer than a few weeks. A lot longer. Why?"

"Just wondering."

She stared at him. "No, you're not. You're trying to get at something." She studied him. "No need to be so jealous and possessive."

"I'm not-"

"Oh yes you are! Sorry you're not my one true love, too."

"Don't mock me."

"I'm not."

"I almost lost you - no, I _did_ lose you. I'm not gonna let that happen again. And you're not making it very easy-"

"Don't blame me! Don't accuse me of sabotaging the future! I have a life, here, right now, that I'm living regardless of what happens in the future!" Then it hit her. "Are you accusing me of trying to intentionally sabotage the future?" That would explain why he had wanted to know how long she and Logan had been together.

"I don't know, why don't you go ask one of your boyfriends! Which one do you want to ask? There's plenty to choose from-"

 _SMACK!_

You could hear the air whistling around her hand as she swung it, before the loud strike as it contacted with his cheek, which so much force he stumbled back and saw stars at the corners of his vision. The whole left side of his face was numb. He stared at her.

She had never struck him before. They had never gotten into such a situation before.

On the surface, his words may not have had the same insulting potential as they did with deeper meaning. And his tone had been accusatory.

"Don't you ever speak to me like that again. Don't you dare." She had tears in her eyes. "You keep this up and I just might sabotage it. That or completely prevent it from ever happening!"

"You don't mean that - please tell me you don't mean it. Please."

"Maybe I do."

"Nina, wait, I-" He'd overstepped a line, and he knew it. The look on her face made it perfectly clear: his words and accusations had hurt her deeply.

"I love Logan," she cried, making him stop. "Just as I loved Charles, and Erik, and heck even Apocalypse way back when! And apparently, somehow, I love you too. But just because we're together in the future gives you no right to make me feel guilty or bad about my past or current relationships. Quite frankly, you have no place in them. You're not even supposed to be in my life yet. You're not even alive yet!" She threw the last few items into her bag. "This is where I'm at now whether you like it or not, and you obviously don't like it so why don't you just get out."

She was now storming from her room, bag over her shoulder. He saw her wiping away tears, though trying to hide it. "You could try and make the best of being stuck here, but no. You obviously don't want to be here and no one's forcing you to stay. Yes, it sucks that you can't go back home, but you don't need to take it out on everyone here who are trying to help you." She scoffed. "My own husband. I spoke too soon before: I have _no idea_ what I see in you in the future." She stormed away, not about to look back.

"Good riddance." Wiping away evidence of her tears and checking herself in the hall mirror, she went to go join her boyfriend.

 _Yay, Hugh's back! ;D I love him (both Hugh and Logan ;)) Plot twist? Maybe!_

 _But nooooo! They were making such progress - kind of..._

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	10. 10

10.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _If I Could Turn Back Time_ \- Cher**

Nathan stood for a long time out in the hall, with what had just happened repeating itself again and again over and over in his mind.

What had he done?

What was he doing?

 _Go after her, damn it!_ Cursing himself, he took off running down the hall, only to crash into Wade and Domino.

"Hey, what's the rush, old man?" Wade questioned. "Don't overexert yourself, now."

"Nina, where is she? I need to talk to her."

"She just left," answered Domino.

"With Wolvie," added Wade, making Nathan want to strangle him.

"God damn it!" Nathan pulled at his hair in frustration.

"What happened?" asked Domino.

"We got into a fight, I said some things, bad things, and she left-"

"AHH!" Nathan was cut off and jumped when Wade suddenly screamed. "The bear's alive!" He pointed, and Nathan looked down at Hope's bear at his belt to see that it was slowly pulsing, in and out of focus – threatening to disappear completely. Oh, _no_.

He'd been screwing up this whole time, but now he had put their whole future at risk.

"Oh wow, this is so _Back to the Future_!" Wade was saying.

Nathan shoved past them and headed to his room, slamming the door. As soon as he was alone he let out a long string of profanity that would have made Nina livid. He could just hear her scolding him for it: _Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, watch your language! You know how I don't like it! How many times do I have to tell you?! What if Hope hears you?!_

He wished she were here, yelling at him, instead of walking away, trying to hide hurt and tears that he had caused, leaving him without looking back.

If only he could go and take back what he said. If only he could prevent it from happening altogether-

An idea struck him. Wait, he might just be able to.

* * *

"Nathan, what can I do for you?" Charles asked when Nathan entered his office.

"I need your help." Nathan launched right into an explanation. "I screwed up. Nina and I got into a fight, a bad one, and I think she hates me now. You're the most powerful telepath, so I need you to erase her memories of me."

Charles folded his hands on his desk as he absorbed this. "And you think this will solve the problem?"

"Yes, maybe, I don't know!" Nathan threw up his hands in exasperation. "I hope so..." He cursed himself under his breath. God, he was an idiot.

"Well, Nathan, I don't think it will. I think you need to talk to her yourself. This is an issue between the two of you and you need to solve it together. You started this, you need to fix it."

The Professor was right, of course, but Nathan was still frustrated that he wouldn't help. But he was even more frustrated with himself. This was his fault, and Charles was right, he had to fix it.

* * *

"You seem pretty fascinated by that guy."

"He's from the future, Scott. Who wouldn't be fascinated?" Jean and Scott were sitting in the courtyard of the mansion, finding some shade beneath a tree. They had spotted the leather-jacketed figure of Cable walking along the path back to the house, and Jean waved to him.

Nathan was strolling slowly along the path, hands jammed in his pockets, lost in his thoughts, when he caught sight of a figure sitting beneath a tree over on the grass waving to him. Despite being a ways from them, he would recognize that red hair and those red-lensed glasses anywhere.

"Come sit," his mother offered.

While Nathan knew he was running a risk, he had to admit he was always curious about his parents' time at the mansion, so he went over and joined them.

"So, how are you settling into the School for the Gifted so far?" Jean asked. She'd asked him that very question when he first came here in his thirties.

"Pretty good. I'm still really homesick." Jean nodded sympathetically. "But, I guess there's worse places to be stuck."

"Sure are," agreed Scott. "So, how far into the future are you from?"

"Fifty years."

Scott gave a whistle. "I bet things are pretty different than now, huh? Hey, maybe when you get back home, you could look us up and see where we're at."

Nathan couldn't help but grin. _Oh, trust me, I know exactly where you're at._ Then he caught himself, remembering that his mother was an Omega-level mutant telepath.

"So, you're students here?"

"We were, we've graduated already but stay to help with training and missions," Jean explained.

Nathan nodded. So they were already finished school – that meant that his own birth was only a few years away.

"So, you're telepathic?" he asked her, feigning uncertainty to make conversation.

Jean nodded. "Yes, I am."

"I am too, though not at powerful as I hear you are," he said as casually as he could. Then he turned to his father.

"Laser eyes," Scott answered. "That's why I've got to wear these all the time." He tapped his glasses. "Otherwise I'll fry everything and everyone around me. Not cool."

Nathan recalled his childhood, pleading with his father to show him how his laser eyes worked. That was before the virus had settled in, before he had been sent away from home into the very distant future to deal with it.

A familiar laugh turned their heads to the pathway, where Nina was walking, the Professor wheeling beside her.

She had returned from her romantic weekend with Logan, and was actively avoiding Nathan. He wanted to give her space, but was also madly trying to figure out what to say to heal the wounds he'd created.

While at first, when they had first started dating, Nathan had been somewhat – okay, admittedly a lot – jealous of the obvious affection still between Nina and the Professor, he also admired their close friendship even after breaking off romantic connections years, no decades, ago. They still relied heavily on each other and were the very best of friends.

"So, Ms. Nova, huh?" It took Nathan a moment to realize his mother was speaking to him. He had been staring again. He turned back to his parents with a questioning look. "You like her," Jean continued. A statement, not a question.

 _Love her._ He almost corrected her out loud. For a moment, Nathan thought she had read his thoughts without telling him. He hated it when she did that. "Did you-"

"No, I don't need to use my powers to know that."

He chuckled a little. "That obvious, huh?"

"Dude, it's so obvious," Scott confirmed. It was strange having your dad call you 'Dude', especially when he was younger than you at the moment by a good couple of decades.

"She's great," Jean said.

"Yeah, she is."

"Isn't she dating that Wolf guy?" asked Scott. Nathan tried not to glare daggers at his father for bringing up the fact and unknowingly rubbing it in.

"Wolverine," Jean corrected. "His name's Logan."

"How do you know?" Scott questioned, suddenly defensive. Seemed like his father's dislike for Wolverine was early-onset, as well as his mother's interest in the guy.

"I pay attention, Scott."

"She seems to really like the guy," Nathan sighed. "And really dislike me."

"I'm sure that's not true," Jean tried.

"I pissed her off. Said some bad stuff, stuff in the heat of an argument, that I didn't mean."

"Talk to her."

"Easier said than done."

"True, oh definitely, but worth it," said Scott. "Trust me, Jean and I have had our moments, but we wouldn't be together now had we not talked things through. Right, Grey?"

"It's true," agreed Jean.

Some good parental advice. Nathan nodded, getting to his feet.

"Good luck with Ms. Nova," said Scott.

"Thanks, I'll need it."

"I thought he had a wife and daughter in the future that he was desperately missing and trying to get back to," Scott remarked as Cable walked away. "But now he's got a crush on Ms. Nova? That doesn't really make sense, does it?"

"I don't think it's quite that simple, Scott," said Jean thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?"

But she didn't answer, and continued to watch the time-traveler as he walked back to the mansion.

 _Haha, I just had to have a scene of Nathan and his young parents! ;) But now the future is at risk! D: Cher's 'If I Could Turn Back Time' worked out so well for this chapter, so perfect! ;)_

 _Thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed! :)_


	11. 11

11.

 _The Past_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Somebody to Love_ \- Queen**

The mansion was big, old-fashioned, at the centre of a large estate. Seeing it with his own eyes did nothing to sway Nathan's already present and strong sense of uncertainty about this.

"Please, at least give it a chance," his mother had insisted, although he were a child again, moving schools. "You might find it really helps. Your father and I came a long way from studying there. We learned a lot."

"I'm not going there to learn," he'd countered.

"But you may still learn a lot. And, all of our friends are there."

He had come here to help train the students. He wasn't sure how much of a help he would be, but here he was nonetheless. He knew from his time spent there what the distant future held - a dark, empty future - so he needed to help them battle that and be as best prepared as possible for it.

He had arrived at the school a couple of days earlier than expected. He thought it would give him some time to settle in before starting work. He planned on keeping to himself mostly for those days.

"Nathan Summers?"

In the entrance hall, Nathan turned at the sound of an English accent, and found the Professor wheeling up to him. Charles Xavier gave him a smile. "You're early."

"Wanted to get settled in."

"Well we're very glad to have you." Xavier held out his hand to shake. "Welcome."

"Hope it's okay that I'm early."

"Certainly! We can get a head start on things. Come, let's go to my office. We'll discuss things further there."

In the office, Xavier smiled at him. "You look like your father. And I sense a bit of your Uncle Alex in you too. Now, onto business. We've got a room for you, and you can asses our training facility and adjust as you see fit-"

A knock at the door sounded then.

"Come in," called Xavier.

A red-haired young woman peeked her head in. "Hi Charles, I have that folder you were looking for-" She stopped when she saw Nathan. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were in a meeting."

"No worries, thank you, Nina. Come in, I would like you to meet our newest addition." Charles waved her in. "This is Nathan, Jean and Scott's son."

The woman's jaw dropped. "Oh! You're Nate Summers! So nice to finally meet you! We've heard so much about you! I'm Nina. Welcome to the School for the Gifted!" She was obviously very passionate about this place. From what his parents had told him, she had been here since the '60s.

They shook hands. "Thanks. Nice to meet you, too. You're Night Witch, right?"

"Yeah, that's me. Or 'Wicked Witch of the West' as Wade calls me."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Thanks. You haven't met him yet?" Nathan shook his head. "Oh boy, you're in for a treat."

"Nina's a teacher here as well," Charles explained.

"That's right, I am. I teach history."

"Sounds like you'd be good at that." Nathan nodded. "The woman from the past."

"Hope so."

"Nathan will be helping with training," Charles told her.

"Oh, excellent! Always more people to train in the ways of being X-Men." She grinned, and Nathan smiled back.

They stayed that way for a few moments until she remembered the folder in her hands. "Oh, right!" She set it down on Charles's desk - the whole reason she had stopped by. "Well, nice to meet you, Nathan. I look forward to seeing you around."

"Thanks, you too." With one last smile, she was gone.

The start of something new and great, though neither knew then just how great it was going to be.

* * *

"Ms. Nova, Ms. Nova! Will you show me the cool magic, please?!"

Nina smiled down at the little girl, one of the younger students, and knelt down so that she was more level with her. She held up a hand of ringed fingers and waved them, energy rippling around her fingertips.

The look on the girl's face was priceless: big, wide eyes, and huge smile. "Wow! It really is magic!"

Nathan smiled as he watched them. He was standing on the staircase, overlooking the wall covered in framed photographs from every decade since the school's opening.

He had now been at the school a couple of weeks, was all settled in, and enjoying it more than he thought he would. It was hard work, but he had been trained in that. And the welcoming, supportive environment the school carried was refreshing and reassuring. The next generation of mutants was going to be just fine.

Nina noticed him and gave him her signature big smile and wave. He returned the gesture, waving his metal hand.

"So you were sent into the future to deal with this?" she asked him, nodding to his arm. She was obviously very curious.

"Yeah." He bent and unbent his metal fingers.

"Did it help?"

"Well, they taught me to use it to my advantage, plus that's where I did most of my training. And they added all the gadgets, like the shield and my eye."

"Wow..." She stared up at him. Then she looked away. "Sorry, you probably don't like the staring." He probably got it a lot.

He shrugged. "It's okay. I don't mind you staring."

She caught his emphasis on 'you', which was partially intentional and partially not. She smiled.

He turned back to the photo he had been staring at, one of the original X-Men back in 1962, before the divide between Xavier and Lehnsherr. The group, then small, stood out in front of the mansion in a line, arms around each other, smiling for the camera: Xavier, Lehnsherr, Nina, Hank, Raven, and Alex.

"Uncle Alex." He nodded to the photo.

"Yeah, we called him Havok. He was great."

"Yeah, wish I'd had the chance to meet him. Most of you are still left though, from his photo."

"Yeah, and we've grown."

"Yeah." They turned and watched as students filled the halls between classes.

She smiled contentedly. "There's no place I'd rather be."

"Think you'll ever leave?" he asked, curious. He was amazed at how long she had been here for, her love for it obviously unwavering.

She shrugged. "If I found the right reason, I suppose. But I don't know what that would be. It frightens me to think of leaving, but I'll always find my way back here. It's home."

 _This took me a lot longer to update than I wanted, but between stress with school, power outages, and weather issues, I wasn't feeling very inspired! But, here we go, finally an update!_

 _I just saw 'Bohemian Rhapsody' a few weeks ago (I know, so late!) and I absolutely loved it and I have been listening to Queen's music non-stop, so I definitely wanted to include one (or more!) of their songs in the chapter theme songs! (I've even started a BoRhap story...)_

 _As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	12. 12

12.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Love Of My Life_ \- Queen**

In the days following Nina and Nathan's dispute and Nina's weekend away with Logan, she had been actively avoiding Nathan, and succeeding. And, try as he may, he couldn't reach her, couldn't get through to her to try and apologize. She wouldn't let him.

It wasn't for lack of trying. Like his young parents had advised, he tried talking to her - he would have tried had they said anything to him or not. She was his wife, the love of his life, after all.

"Nina-" They were passing each other in the hall amongst many students on their way to class, and he grabbed his chance.

She strode right past, not even so much as glancing at him.

All right, he deserved that, he admitted it. But he had to keep trying. "Listen, you have every right to be upset-"

"Oh, I'm glad you realize that."

"-But I'm trying to apologize-" She kept walking. "-If you'd let me."

"Oh, I think I've heard enough from you. More than enough. I was unsure about you before, slowing warming to you, but now I see - clearly. And I'm glad for it."

It turned out to be another failed attempt.

They rarely ever fought. Sure, they had their arguments and disagreements, just like any couple, but the fights were rare, and when they did happen, they were about something serious, often escalating to yelling quickly.

He recalled one night, when Hope was four, he and Nina had gotten into a heated argument. He had come home late from a long day of hard, grueling work training new recruits. Not to mention his virus was spreading again, more painfully than usual, probably because of stress, and only adding to the pain he already felt from the strain of training. Not wanting to worry her any more than usual, he had kept quiet about it, but the keeping it bottled up all day was getting to him, and he snapped. She had expressed her worry, feeling he was pushing himself too hard, and when she realized he was hurt, she got more worried. Already frustrated by the tough day, he had brushed off her concern, and they had begun yelling. It was late, and both were tired, which also didn't help.

"STOP!"

They were snapped from their argument by scream, and both immediately fell silent, turning to see Hope standing on the stairs crying, hands over her ears. Their shouting had woken her up and evidently frightened her. They hadn't realized how much their argument had escalated.

"Stop it!" their little girl wailed, tears streaming down her face. Her teddy bear was crushed beneath her arm, held tightly against her, always there with her as a source of comfort. Their hearts instantly broke.

"Oh baby, we're sorry, we didn't mean to wake you-" Nina rushed to their daughter, scooping Hope up and holding her close, rocking her gently.

"I-I'm scared, Mummy," Hope choked out.

"Oh, Hope - we're so sorry."

"We're sorry, Sweetheart," Nathan added, coming over to stroke Hope's hair, red like her mom's. He kissed the top of her head. "We didn't mean to upset you, too."

"W-why were you yelling?"

"We just got a little upset, and had a disagreement," Nina tried to explain.

"D-do you not love each other anymore?"

Her question alarmed both her parents, who exchanged a brokenhearted glance, now feeling immensely guilty, having blown the whole thing up into something it shouldn't have been. After all, they had only been concerned for each other. They shuffled closer together.

"Oh, Hope - of course we still love each other," Nina soothed. "We just got upset, and took it out on each other. We didn't mean it, it was just in the heat of the moment. It was silly, really, because we were arguing because we were concerned for each other. Even if we fight, we still love each other, okay? People who love each other still fight sometimes."

"But why?"

"I'm not sure, really. I think it's because they love each other. And, if they can work through it, it means they really love each other."

"Did you? Work through it?"

Again, her parents exchanged a glance. "No, not yet," Nina admitted. "But we will."

Hope nodded and sniffled.

They had both taken her back to bed, tucking her in with her teddy bear.

"We love you, Hope."

"Love you too, Mummy and Daddy." There was a pause before she added, "Say it to each other, too."

They turned to face each other, offering a smile.

"I love you, Neen." He took her hand.

"I love you too, Nate."

God, he missed them so much.

And to make matters worse, Logan had been around more lately, probably by Nina's request, and seeing as this was the case, Nathan had caught glimpses of their relationship - okay, yeah, he had been eavesdropping and watching a little.

They obviously had feelings for one another, there was no shortage of genuine affection between them. Of course, Nathan paid more attention to Nina.

She looked – happy.

Much to his dismay. He hated to say it. He hated that he hated it. That's all he ever wanted for her, after all, was for her to be happy. But he wanted it with him, selfish-sounding or not. And they were happy, so, so happy. At least in his timeline. And knowing just how happy they were together in the future made it so much worse. Strange, how it was something so good and yet how it made him feel so upset. A perfectly good paradox.

Hope's bear was still pulsing steadily - perhaps more slowly now, lingering on disappearing before coming back to focus, or perhaps that was just his anxious mind. This was way too close for him, he had to do something, and quick.

Only Nina didn't want anything to do with him. And he didn't blame her. He continually cursed himself for what he had said to her, and the look of pure, sharp hurt she had felt because of him was seared into his mind. He had hurt her, the woman he loved, and he would never forgive himself for it. Just as he would never fully forgive himself for not being there to protect his family during Firefist's attack, even though it had been prevented now.

 _"People who love each other still fight sometimes."_

But this time was different. While he loved her, she wanted nothing to do with him, and it was all his fault. That, and she was clearly in love with another man.

* * *

"You okay, Hon?" Logan's voice broke into Nina's thoughts, snapping her back to the present. She sighed. She had drifted off - yet again.

They sat in Logan's truck parked on a hill at the edge of Charles's estate, overlooking the mansion. "Yes, yes I'm fine." She was sure he could tell this was a lie.

She was right. "You seem distracted."

"I do, don't I?" _I am_. She sighed. "Oh Logan, I'm sorry. This whole time together and I've been off in my own thoughts, not focused in the moment." It had been that way on their weekend getaway as well, back when the wound from Nathan's words was still fresh, leaving her distracted. Now time had caused that wound to scar over, and only fuel her already existing anger.

"Hey, it's all right," he assured her, putting an arm around her, she leaning into him and inhaling the familiar scent of his leather jacket. "You want to talk about it?" he asked after a pause.

"No, not really. Not yet. Thank you, though. I don't want to think about it anymore. I just want to focus on here and now. On us." If only she _could_ focus.

"Sounds good, Darlin'." He kissed the top of her head.

"I love you, you know." She snuggled up against him.

He chuckled, now leaning down to kiss her lips. "I love you, too."

 _Action/major plot points coming soon, I promise - was going to add it in this chapter but that would have been really long cause it's an action scene!_

 _Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	13. 13

13.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Don't Go Breaking My Heart -_ Elton John and Kiki Dee**

"Jesus-" Nathan walked into the kitchen and stopped suddenly, wishing he hadn't entered the room. There he found Nina and Logan, and he had caught them in the middle of a passionate embrace. _Gross_.

This made him think of Hope and her exclaiming "YUCK!" or "EWWWWW!" every time she caught her parents doing something romantic, even if they were just looking at each other. He'd done the same as a kid.

Nina was sitting on the edge of the counter, Logan standing before her, and they were making out. It reminded Nathan too much of those mornings at home when Nina would awake before him and he would find her in the kitchen and they would share sleepy morning kisses. That was until they heard the pattering of Hope's feet as she came downstairs, though sometimes they would keep kissing as she entered the room, since her reaction was so adorable.

No one said anything, not acknowledging each other, which proved extremely awkward.

Nathan debated leaving, but was hungry. He stepped past them to reach into a cupboard. "Don't mind me." He could feel Nina glaring daggers at him.

Heavy, thundering footsteps sounded in the hall moments later, severing the continuing awkward silence, and an out-of-breath Colossus burst into the kitchen. "We have mission! Trouble downtown - _big_ trouble! City being torn apart!"

The three blinked back at him. "What? How?" Nina finally asked.

"No time to explain now - will explain on the way. X-Men and X-Force must go now!" He rushed off, most likely to spread the news to the others.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

"X-Men _and_ X-Force? _Together?_ Ha, And they said _Avengers: Infinity War_ was the most ambitious crossover in film history!" Wade appeared and clapped his hands together. "Well, you heard the big guy, let's go," he urged.

Within minutes everyone was suited up and on their way out, Colossus trying to give a summary of the situation as everyone scrambled about.

"Aww you two are practically matching!" cried Wade, fluttering his eyelashes - or at least that's what he was probably doing underneath his mask - hands resting beneath his chin as he eyed Nina and Nathan. He was referencing her purple and black traditional X-Men suit, and Nathan's dark purple shirt and otherwise dark attire. The last couple of missions he had worn a black or dark grey shirt. "Couple goals!"

* * *

"And that's why you always use protection." The Jet wasn't big enough for all the X-Men and X-Force, so, naturally, Wade called Dopinder.

"Unbelievable," Nina muttered from where she was once again squished in the back of the taxi with Doms on one side and Nathan on the other, blowing her hair out of her eyes. This car ride was even more awkward than the last one.

"Just ignore him," chuckled Doms, giving her a nudge.

"Maybe he'll go away," Nina added.

"Exactly."

"Hey, I can hear you two!" Wade cried from shotgun.

"Good!"

"Trust me, I'd rather be stuck up there with you who never shuts up," Nina muttered. _Maybe if I ignore Nathan, he'll go away too._ She was still upset and hurt by what he had said, and so sitting so close to him wasn't ideal.

He had obviously heard her muttering. "You're gonna have to forgive me sometime, you know."

"I don't _have_ to do anything. And certainly not for you."

"If you would just listen and let me apologize-"

"I told you, I don't want to hear it."

"I came here to this time to save my future-"

"Well fat lot of good that did!"

"No thanks to you!"

She gasped. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Well you're not making this any easier!"

"I'm not?! You're the one who's making it worse!"

Everyone else had fallen dead silent as the two continued to argue.

"I'm just trying to figure out how I ever end up sharing my life with you!" She hadn't really intended to voice that thought, but snapped and said it.

The others remained silent, even Wade, and Dopinder slammed on the breaks.

"Awkward..." Wade finally mumbled. Dopinder's music still played in the background.

"Hey Dopinder, pull over. And Wade, move over, I'm coming up there with you," instructed Domino. "I feel like such a third-wheel back here."

"Me too! Well, I guess I'm more of a fourth-wheel..."

Dopinder did so and pulled the car to the side of the road so it wasn't stopped in the middle of the highway so Doms could change seats. Nina knew why she had left them – it would seem that they were in need of a talk and the other woman wanted to give them some space. As much space as a full taxi could bring, that is. She even slid the glass window separating the front and back seats closed.

As soon as Doms was out of her seat Nina slid over so that the middle seat separated her and Nathan. She cast a side glance to see him staring at the back of the seat in front of him, still looking grim and serious but now also a touch hurt, and she could tell her words had wounded him more than he let on. He was good at hiding emotion.

She barely noticed when Dopinder started driving again. "Listen, I'm not condemning it-"

"But you're in denial," he cut in.

"Well, we didn't exactly have the best first impression."

"I wouldn't exactly say that-"

"You tortured, murdered, threatened, and kidnapped upon arriving here. And tried to kill a child! All within the span of a couple of days!"

"Yeah, a child who would have grown up to one day become your murderer!"

"And the first time I met you was in some sketchy hotel."

"Talk about romantic," Wade chimed from the front. She pounded her fist on the glass to silence him. It didn't work. He tapped on the glass. "Sorry, it's just, we can hear you."

Nina ignored him. "No wonder I'm skeptical."

"In my defense, I was in a really bad place. I'd just discovered the dead bodies of you and our daughter, so I wasn't exactly thinking straight. All I could think about was saving you both, preventing that from ever happening. I had just lost everything-"

"Stop saying that, please."

"It's true."

"How can it be true?!" she snapped, startling both herself and him.

Dopinder had stopped driving and the others got out of the cab to give the future couple some space and privacy.

Nathan's expression softened. "I know that look-"

She scoffed. "That's unnerving."

"You're nervous." A pause. "Nina, what are you afraid of?"

"Nothing," she lied. "I get it, your situation is already bad, but you're only making it worse by being such a cold, distant jerk to everyone. You're in a good place, with good people who are willing to help you. Stop pushing them away. Instead, show me the man I fall in love with in the future."

 _Knock. Knock._ Wade was now knocking on the window. _Knock, knock, knock._

"What now?" she cried.

"Uh, you'd better come and see this..."

"My God-"

"Jesus..."

'City being ripped apart' was really the perfect description. All of the city was being sucked into a void at the centre of downtown.

"Dopinder, you'd better get out of here," said Wade, suddenly sounding very serious. "Don't wait for us."

Dopinder did so. The X-Jet hovered overhead.

" _You guys seeing this?_ " came Scott's voice over the radio.

"Sure are."

"Those are the same weapons we stopped before," Doms said, recognizing the source of the void.

"Some must have already been sold," added Nathan.

"Well, shit job the authorities did," Wade remarked.

" _The police made a perimeter, but it's closing fast - disappearing fast,_ " updated Storm from where she was levitating above.

" _Any civilians?"_

 _"No, they already evacuated everyone. Only the police remain."_

" _Well they're gonna need to move their asses too, and fast,"_ said Scott. " _Peter_ -"

" _Did someone say 'fast'? I'm on it!_ "

The X-Men and rest of X-Force left the Jet. There was a great rumble, and everyone was thrown off balance, many knocked to the ground completely, the already vast void widening further.

"Reality's tearing itself apart," Nina informed. "It's sucking away everything in its path."

"Us too, pretty soon _,_ " stated Peter.

"So let's close it," said Jean. "Let's shut this down."

They rushed to each of the weapons, acting as pillars holding the void open.

"Should we take them out, or try and shut them down?" asked Kurt.

"Shut them down! Destroying them might not stop them. Shut them down, then destroy them," ordered Scott.

"If we're all still here by then."

"Again, thank you for the optimism, Peter."

"Hey, anytime!"

"Oh _nein_! We have a problem," announced Kurt. He was at the main weapon. "This one has a timer and it's ticking down!"

"It's a bomb too!"

"Professor, do you think you can try and hack into it through telepathy?" Jean asked into the radio where Charles was listening in from the mansion.

" _Already trying, Jean - not getting very far, unfortunately."_

"Hey Cable! This sounds like the perfect job for you!" called Wade.

Nathan was already on his way over, activating his arm's scanner. "If it implodes, it'll take the whole city with it. Cataclysmic damage. And the blast will probably have far reaching affect, as well. I'm gonna need some help here."

"I'm on it!" Doms jogged over.

"We've got this one," called Ellie, she, Yukio, and Colossus working on another.

"Nina, don't get too close! You'll get sucked in too," Logan warned of her standing near the edge.

"I'm trying to see the centre of the void, but I can't, it's too deep."

"Sucked in _and_ shredded!" Wade added, watching as a hot dog stand was claimed by the void, instantly torn to shreds. "NOT that one! God damn it, best hot dogs in New York!"

"Focus, Wade," called Doms.

"Well, I didn't have breakfast, so I'm kinda starving."

"Wade! Breakfast is most important meal of day!" scolded Colossus.

They were cut off by a gust of wind cause by the void, thrashing everyone around. Nina tried to cast a protective shield between them and the void.

"Any luck, Professor?" called Jean.

" _None_ ," sighed Charles.

" _Uh, guys, we're seriously next up to get swallowed by this thing_ ," informed Peter who was rushing about, shoving cars and benches in front of them as a shield, but these too soon fell victim.

 _"I'm afraid it looks like we're going to need the Dark Dimension,"_ said Charles.

"Yup, this is definitely an emergency!" yelled Wade.

 _"Nina,"_ came Charles's apologetic voice.

"Yeah, I was thinking that too-" Time to fight reality with reality. "You know the drill: everyone stand back. Going dark."

 _Cliffhanger! ;) Now things are starting to pick up plot-wise (at least I hope so! ;)_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	14. 14

14 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _The Magneto Effect_ \- John Ottman ( _X-Men: Apocalypse_ Soundtrack)**

 _"Going dark."_

A pain began settling deep within her as she dug deep, willing herself to tap into the strongest, most dangerous part of her powers. It was painful, and draining, but right now it was necessary.

Before, she had been fighting a powerful force with reality - Sentinels, Apocalypse - but this time, she was fighting reality with reality, even if the weapons used artificial reality.

A cry of pain escaped her lips as she felt a crack in the reality field, pushing towards the Dark Dimension, buried deep within the recesses of reality itself.

Seeing her in pain, Nathan took a step forward.

"No! Stay back!" she snapped. Then, more softly and concerned, she added. "I-I don't want to hurt anyone - AH-" She was cut off by another strike of pain deep within her, this one causing her to drop to her knees.

"Does this always happen?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," said Jean. "It's a very draining process for her."

He felt instant guilt, wishing he had known. Nina never used her dark powers in his timeline, their timeline, always tried to avoid it as much as possible, always being ashamed of it, and never wanting Hope to witness it.

He wanted to help her, but all he could do was obey her wishes, and stand back and watch with the others.

But when she cried out in pain again, he took action. "We can't just stand here, she's hurt-"

"Nathan don't-" Jean held him back. "We'd be putting ourselves in danger too, and she wouldn't want that. You heard her."

So he was forced to do nothing but watch. He knew too well that if something happened to someone while Nina was using her powers, she would blame herself, even if it were not her fault and out of her control.

When she opened her eyes again, they were completely black, as if her pupils had overtaken the rest of her eyes.

The next time she used her powers, dark energy swirled from her hands, flowing towards the open portal which was still rapidly sucking the city away. The others worked together to try and delay this, while Nina worked to stop it.

Slowly but surely, the void began to shrink, to close. It was working.

Nina, however, was fading.

" _Nina_ ," came Charles's urgent voice in her head. " _It's working, focus just a little longer. Stay conscious, focus on the sound of my voice..._ "

Nathan activated his arm's shield, while Jean cast a protective telepathic field over the others. There was a deep rumble and crash, which shook the ground.

When the dust cleared and settled, the void was gone - and so was Nina.

Before anyone could panic (especially Nathan), Storm levitated above the others. "There, I see her!" she pointed. Her bright red hair made her easy to spot, thank goodness.

Nathan rushed over to the pile of rubble which had landed partially on top of her and began throwing the pieces of debris aside. She moved slightly, not unconscious, but also not fully conscious either.

Logan helped her to her feet, helping support her weight as she leaned against him. "You all right?"

"Y-yeah, I think I-I just need to go lie d-down-" Her voice shook and she stumbled, and would have hit the ground, if it weren't for him catching her.

"Whoa - careful there, Darlin'."

She didn't answer - she had fallen silent and limp, fully unconscious now. Logan picked her up in his arms and carried her to the jet, leaving the city centre in ruins.

* * *

Nina didn't awake again for three days - the longest ever recovery for her following the use of the Dark Dimension.

With special permission, Charles and Jean went to go help rebuild the city with their telepathy. She would have gone too, but was not up to such a task so soon after.

When she did finally awaken, her head felt heavy, as did her eyelids when she tried to open her eyes.

"Ah, and she awakens. Prince Charming didn't even have to kiss her awake." She didn't need to turn to look to know that a certain mouthy merc was sitting at her bedside.

"Are you my prince charming, then?"

"Ha, you wish! No, I'm the jester!" He held up the thick book in his hands. "Was reading some fairy tales to pass the time. Some of these sure are dark - I love 'em! But, in all seriousness-" He set the book aside. "-How're you feeling?"

Nina tried to sit up, which resulted in her head spinning madly, so she decided to stay laying down. "Not so good. Still really tired and low-energy."

"Yeah, understandable."

"What happened? We managed to stop the void?"

"You did, yeah. But the city took a hard hit, obviously. It's gonna take a while to rebuild it, even with superpowers!"

She was nodding distantly. "You know before when you were talking about F-words?"

He seemed a little taken aback by the sudden change in topics. "Which time?"

"True. When you were saying family isn't an F-word. Well, I kind of feel like it is for me. Not exactly, but kind of. It scares me. And I know it shouldn't, but it does. Especially now that I know I have one. And it's difficult when the evidence is right there, staring me in the face all the time - literally."

"You mean evidence in the form of a super hot, super strong, half-metal, bad-ass super soldier from the future?"

She would have rolled her eyes, but felt too weak to even do that - that wasn't a good sign. "Don't remind me."

"Yeah, I can imagine that would be a little freaky."

"Tell me about it. And he's a pain in the ass."

"Well, you marry him for a reason, and he's obviously got the major hots for you, but I would say you don't have to worry about all that for a while."

"Thanks, Wade." This still didn't help too much, but she appreciated his efforts.

"Well, they don't call me, 'Wade the Wise' for nothing."

This time she did manage to roll her eyes, and the action made her head spin. She let out a groan.

"Yikes, you're obviously still in pretty rough shape. I'll let you rest." He got up to leave but paused in the doorway. "Oh, speaking of Future Hubby, he's been asking about you, and wanted to come sit with you, but I figured you wouldn't be too keen on that."

"Thanks, Wade. Always looking out for me."

"Always, always, Shorty."

 _Apologies for the delay in updating - my Avengers stories have been taking priority lately ;)_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed - hopefully the next update will be sooner! :)_


	15. 15

15.

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Baby Be Mine_ \- Michael Jackson**

Nina and Logan had gone off on another 'romantic weekend getaway' and Nathan could barely sit still. Not only that, Nina had been acting differently since the mission and her long recovery, and he was worried about her well being. Not that she would ever open up to him about it. Not now.

The usually serious, completely-focused super-soldier was fidgeting and it did not go unnoticed, especially not by a certain merc who had recently become very involved and invested in their relationship, much to Nathan, and Nina's, dismay.

"Chill, Lover-boy. Yikes, you really get edgy when Wifey isn't around. Relax, she's fine. She's in good hands. I may have my doubts about Wolvie, but he's a good guy."

Nathan just muttered angrily to himself.

"What was that?"

"Fuck off!"

"Oh! Well why didn't you just say so?"

Nathan sighed. After a pause, he said, "Did Nina tell either of you what they were doing this weekend?"

"Sounded like they were going back to that remote cabin in the mountains," said Doms, popping her gum, and not looking up from her magazine when she spoke. "Secluded, scenic, away from all this. Sounds relaxing. In fact, I could really go for one myself."

"Maybe we should all go and join them," Nathan muttered, only half-joking. _Keep an eye on them..._

"Crash their hot date? I'm down!" said Wade.

"Did they say what they were doing there?" Nathan asked Domino, trying to ignore Wade.

She shrugged. "Hanging out, I don't know. Does it matter?"

"Yeah, it kinda does-"

"I'm gonna take a lucky guess and say that something's wrong. What's up?" she asked him, now looking up from her magazine.

"Wait - are you worried that they might be, you know–"

Nathan pointed a finger at Wade. "Don't. Say. It."

There was a pause. "Like, _doing it_?"

"YES!" Nathan exploded. "I'm trying not to think about the possibility that maybe that's what they might be doing on their 'romantic weekend getaway' all alone in the woods. Maybe."

"Yikes," Wade winced. "You have been over-analyzing this. No wonder you wanna go check in on them. That's rough, man."

 _Yeah, no kidding. Tell me about it._

"Have you talked to her yet?" asked Domino. "Since your failed apology on the way to the mission?"

"It wasn't a failure-" Not a _complete_ one...

"It was pretty shitty," Wade put in unhelpfully.

"No one asked your opinion," Nathan snapped, followed by a sigh. "Not yet. Trying, but with no success. Yet."

"Well there, there's the solution," Wade stated matter-of-factly.

Nathan gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to punch him right in his big mouth. "It's not that easy. She's avoiding me. I want to give her space, but I also need to fix this. But all I've done is push her away further."

"What did happen exactly?" asked Doms. "She seems really upset."

"Yeah." Nathan nodded sadly. "It's my fault. I started asking her if she was dating Logan before I came along – I wanted to know if she was dating him to try and prevent our future. It was stupid, but I had to ask. I said some mean stuff that hurt her-"

"What stuff?" pressed Wade.

"None of your business. What matters is I said it, even if I wish I hadn't, and now I can't take it back."

"Well, becoming her stalker probably won't help much, or crashing her date," said Wade unhelpfully. "Like you said, give her some space. Give it time-"

"But I don't have time!" Nathan cried. "You saw the bear - it's threatening to fade away. I've already made my future wife hate me and we haven't even technically met yet. If she hates me like this already, then our future together is as good as gone." He sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his face. "Timelines are very fragile. I've screwed up this one too much."

"Look, I get it-"

"No you don't fucking get it! Don't try and understand! She's not just my wife, okay, she's the love of my fucking life! And she's off doing God knows what with her boyfriend! I lose her and I lose everything!"

The others now sat blinking back at him in silence. He hadn't wanted to spill his guts to them, but... Now that was also something he couldn't take back.

He chuckled. "She wouldn't like me saying that, but, well, it's the truth."

"Just drop the 'fucking' and you should be good. Just tell her how you feel, man. Honesty goes a long way," said Wade.

"Says you."

"Hey, I can be honest! Very honest. When I want to be. And this is one of those times. Like you said, you've got to fix this. Your whole future depends upon it."

"Thanks."

He was always one to take action, but Wade and Domino were right, going and crashing Nina's date with Logan would only make this worse.

He just had to wait for her to come back from her romantic getaway.

* * *

"Ugh-" Nina took a small sip of her beer and almost spat it out. "I don't know how you can drink these."

"Want me to finish it?" Logan asked.

"Yes, please do." She passed it to him and he drank deeply.

They sat around a campfire which they had set up in the front yard of the cabin. The night was warm and calm, and the stars above in the sky were so clear, but Nina couldn't focus on any of that.

"Nina," Logan said, breaking the silence. "You want to talk about it now?"

"About what?"

"About whatever's bothering you." Silence. "Does it have something to do with that new guy?"

She sighed. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Nina-"

"I said I don't want to talk about it, Logan, so just leave it!" she suddenly snapped. Her expression immediately softened. "I-I'm sorry. I'm not feeling very well. Ever since the battle I've felt - _off_."

"Off? Off how?"

"I don't know, just, well, off."

"Have you felt like this before?"

She shook her head. "No. That's the scary part."

* * *

As soon as Nina and Logan returned, Nathan went to go talk to her. He knocked on her bedroom door.

A face he had not been expecting and did not want to see showed up instead.

"Oh, hey," said Logan. He was dressed in jeans and a tank top, and was standing in Nina's room.

Nathan bit back an angry response and got straight to the point. "Where's Nina?"

"She's meeting with some students."

"What are you doing here?"

"She told me to wait for her."

"In her room?"

"Yeah."

Nathan couldn't help it – next thing he knew he had grabbed the other man by the front of his shirt and launched him down the hall.

Nina was just walking down the hall, chatting with Doms, when they heard a scream, followed by Logan crash-landing on the other side of the grand staircase.

"Logan! Are you alright?!"

The man quickly recovered, jumping to his feet. "Alright, fine, two can play this game." He withdrew his claws. "What the hell is your problem, man?"

"Right now, you are!"

Logan lunged forward. There was a ring of metal as his claws scraped against Nathan's metal arm.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" some students started up a chant.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Wade was amongst them, no surprise.

"What did I do to piss you off?" Logan demanded. "We've exchanged like ten words."

"Keep away from my wife."

"I don't know your wife."

They lunged at each other again, only to be blasted back by a surge of energy between them.

"That's enough!" They turned to see a familiar redhead, now fuming. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she snapped at Nathan.

"That's what I said," agreed Logan.

"You're not innocent here either, Logan! Now what is going on?"

"Something about his wife," Logan explained.

"Stay out of this," snapped Nathan. "This is between us." He nodded to Nina.

"Oh, not this again-"

"You're my wife!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Whoa..." All the students were still crowded around.

"Everyone back to your rooms or classes!" ordered Nina. Slowly but surely, they shuffled away.

"Nina, what's going on?" asked Logan.

"Thanks a lot," she snapped at Nathan.

"Our daughter's bear is threatening to disappear-"

"Daughter?" cried Logan.

"And you're blaming me? It's your fault!" she shot back.

"My fault? I've been desperately trying to fix this! You're too stubborn to face me and accept your future. _Our_ future."

"Well, maybe I don't want to accept it! Maybe I don't want it!"

"Stop saying that! Please! You're ruining everything!"

"Me?! I'm ruining everything?!" She scoffed and stalked past him. "You're unbelievable. You're the one who basically accused me of sleeping around with the X-Men!"

Wade let out a loud gasp and turned to Nathan. "You didn't! No one insults my Shorty!"

"I didn't mean it like that - I would never-"

"But you said it! You're the one who's ruining this."

"And you're ruining my future!"

She stopped. " _Your_ future?"

"Our future," he corrected himself too late. "Babe, come on-"

She raised her eyebrows. " _Babe_?"

"I-it just slipped out..."

"Yeah, right."

"Hope hates it when we fight. So do I. So do you."

Yeah, she wasn't a big fan, but wasn't about to admit it.

"I love you!" he cried, a last, desperate attempt.

"But you don't, not _this_ me. And you expect me to love you too, but I can't, I don't, not yet. I don't even know you yet. So stop it! Just, just – FUCK OFF!"

Everyone was shocked into silence following her outburst. Even Wade was completely silent.

"There, I said it. And I hope you're happy," she told Wade before storming out, leaving silent shock in her wake.

 _Really excited for the next chapter, Nina and Nate are both in for a major surprise! ;)_

 _Was excited for that Logan and Nathan fight! ;) that would be pretty epic!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	16. 16

16 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Driven By You_ \- Brian May**

Logan found her sitting out front in the truck, shivering. He opened the driver's door and sat with her in silence for a few minutes.

"So, future husband, huh? Future daughter?" Silence. "Now I get why you didn't want to talk about it."

"It should be impossible," she scoffed.

"Well, we did go time travelling to save the future."

"And I thought that was as personal as it was going to get."

There was another pause before he broke the silence again. "Guess I don't stand a chance against those Summers boys, huh?" She surprised him by bursting into tears. "Oh hey, that was supposed to be a joke-"

"Oh Logan, I'm sorry," she sobbed.

"What for, Sweetheart?"

"Well it's confirmation that we don't last."

"Maybe we don't, but it's not your fault. Nothing lasts forever. And I'll be glad for whatever time we have together."

"Me too. I really love you, Logan."

"I love you too, Nina."

"And the future isn't set."

"Nina-"

"What? It's not." She sighed, leaning against him. His arm went around her shoulders in a comforting embrace. "Knowing your future isn't easy, and I'm not sure I'm ready to accept it."

* * *

That night Nina stayed with Logan. In the middle of the night she was roused from sleep by another one of those explicit dreams featuring herself and Nathan doing - _things_. Lots of things. An image she did not want, especially not now.

"NO!"

She was sweaty and breathing heavily and now pissed off. Why? Why now? Why at all?

"Oh, that son of a-" As soon as she set foot back in the mansion the next morning, she stormed up the stairs and down the hall and without knocking, burst into his room.

"Hypocrite! You - AH!" She jumped back out of the room and behind the door. He was only in his underwear.

She heard him curse, obviously startled by her bursting in. "What the - what is it?"

"Put some clothes on!" He said nothing but she heard the rustling of fabric. "Are you decent?"

"Well I have pants on now, is that decent enough for you?"

She threw the door open again. "Hypocrite! You accuse me of sabotaging and now here you are trying to sabotage my relationship! Insulting me just wasn't enough, huh?! Logan and I are perfectly happy – stop trying to ruin that!"

"What are you talking about?" He crossed his arms over his toned, bare chest.

"I had another one of those dreams last night because you were fantasizing about you and your wife! And it bet this time it was intentional just to mess with me."

"I wasn't thinking about that."

"Yeah right!"

"No, I wasn't. Well I was thinking about you-"

"Your wife!"

" _You_. But I wasn't purposely telekinetically sending you those thoughts."

She was about to continue yelling, but stopped. "You weren't?"

"Nope. Believe it or not, I'm not intentionally trying to piss you off."

"Oh..." So what did that mean? "B-but I had another one of those-"

"Well I had nothing to do with it."

 _But you were in that dream_. And this time it actually was a dream.

Great. Now she was dreaming about him.

* * *

Nina knocked on Charles's study door.

"Ah, hello my dear. How are you?"

"Alright."

"Yes, I heard that things got a little out of control yesterday."

"Again," she sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't hear of it, I'm not proud of it. But just when I think I can deny it, something happens to pass the point of denying it even further. I'm really not sure I like knowing so much about my future." She sat down heavily in the chair before his desk.

He nodded. "But that's not all that's been bothering you, is it?"

Just like with Logan, he could tell something wasn't quite right, she wasn't quite herself. The glow she usually emitted had been dimmed lately, and it wasn't just because of a fight - another fight - with her future husband.

"No, it's not. Ever since we stopped the city from being torn apart, I've felt strange, felt off. I don't really know how to describe it, and that frightens me. It frightens me, whatever it is."

"You want me to have a look?" She nodded. He reached out and placed gentle fingertips against her temple, closing his eyes and concentrating on her thoughts. She began to feel his presence in her mind.

Suddenly, Charles gasped and drew back.

"What? W-what is it?" His reaction startled her.

"I'm sensing the Dark Dimension, still on the surface, still present."

"B-but that's impossible-" But maybe it wasn't - she never closed it. "I must have passed out before fully closing it."

"Don't panic, Nina." Gosh, he could read her so well. "That's the worst thing you can you. You just have to concentrate on keeping it at bay. Perhaps you can push it back below the surface without having to open it again."

"T-this has never happened before."

"I know, but we'll work through this. Don't worry."

"But you know I don't have full control! I don't want to hurt anyone."

"I know, and you won't, you haven't before," Charles assured her.

"That's not entirely true..."

"Nina, look at me." She met his gaze. "Everything will be all right, I promise."

* * *

He was only making it worse. That much was for sure.

Okay, he had lost his patience again, and said some more stuff he didn't really mean, prompting her to yell back and make herself very clear.

Nathan was feeling pretty down when a guilty-looking Wade came to find him.

"Don't hate me, but I may have screwed up again... Or made it better, depends on how you look at it..."

"What did you do now?" The way he was feeling, Nathan didn't think anything could top losing the ability to see his family again and upsetting the woman who would one day marry him so much that she would tell him to fuck off.

"Well, speaking of _Back to the Future_... I need you to come to the library."

Nathan really didn't want to, but he did anyway. He also didn't miss the way Wade was squirming, out of excitement or nervousness, maybe a bit of both, he couldn't really tell. Now he wasn't really sure if he wanted to know.

"What's going on? There something you wanted to show me?" he said once they reached the library, empty except for them.

"Well, you said that you're future is threatened again, so I decided to take matters into my own hands-" Hand which he was wringing as he spoke.

"A terrible idea."

"-And it didn't go quite as I had planned-"

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"But-" Wade turned, and it suddenly became clear that the library wasn't in fact empty besides them.

Nathan wasn't prepared for what he saw.

" _D-Dad?_ "

His jaw literally dropped. " _Hope?_ "

 _CLIFFHANGER! ;D haha! Hope Summers sounds like a badass in the comics, and I've been waiting to introduce her into this story!_

 _So excited for the next chapter! ;) Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!_


	17. 17

17 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Tomorrow_ \- Alicia Morton ( _Annie_ Soundtrack)**

But that was impossible.

One, how could she even be here in the first place?

And two, the girl staring back at him was a teenager.

But those were his eyes she was staring at him with, and the red hair she had was unmistakably her mother's. She carried herself with an obvious confidence that he was instantly proud of.

It was her, his daughter, his Hope.

"D-Dad?" She appeared just as shocked. "Daddy?"

"Hope? I-is that really you?"

"Yes," she cried. "Yes! Dad, I'm here."

"You're here."

" _You're_ here."

"You're _here_."

"I'm here, I'm here!" She threw her arms around him - she was tall now, and he didn't have to lean down to hug her anymore.

He pulled away slightly to stare at her, still not quite believing it. "You're – _older_."

She chuckled. "And you're the same as I remember."

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

His stomach dropped. " _Ten_ years?" Ten years from when he last saw her. He still didn't make it home for ten years? "You mean I don't get to see you grow up?"

"Yeah, at least as of right now, but we can still change that," she added hopefully. "We can still find a way to get you home sooner."

"Been trying, but it's a slow process." He took both of her hands in his, quickly realizing that one was cold and stiff. Looking down, he saw that the hand and arm on her right side were metal.

This struck him - so he had passed his virus onto his child, just as he had feared and Nina had comforted him about. "Oh, Hope. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, it actually comes in handy a lot. Maybe when you get home you can outfit it with a bunch of cool gadgets like yours."

He couldn't help but chuckle, glad she didn't seem to see it as a burden as he did. "What the hell are you doing here? _How_ are you even here?"

"Well, Uncle Wade showed up and-"

" _Uncle_ Wade?"

"-And said that you and Mom were in trouble, or having trouble. So, he asked me to come help resolve it."

" _Uncle_?"

"Uncle?!" Both turned to face Wade. "Aw, I'm tearing up over here!" He wiped away a fake tear. "Well, since you and Wifey are obviously going through a rough patch, I thought, who better to fix that than your own child? The child of your own making. The missing link between you, _voila_! Only, I sorta misjudged how far into the future..."

"Yeah, only sorta. But how'd you do it?"

"Well, you know those false-reality weapons?"

"Oh no..."

"Yeah, I managed to get myself one. Turns out, with the right fixing up, it can do the whole time-travel thing too. So, problem solved, you can get home! After we charge the thing, though, my jump into the future to get her took a lot out of it. But, I think it would have enough power to charge up your time device."

Nathan barely registered that he more than likely had a way to return home now, with his daughter standing here before him. He turned back to her, still not quite believing it. She was here, his Hope. He had half of his family back.

"How's your mom?" He asked the question burning on his tongue.

"She's good. Misses you, though."

"I miss her too. God, so much."

"Speaking of Shorty - I don't think we should let her find out about this..."

"No, I think we should tell her," disagreed Nathan. "She pissed off enough already as it is, I don't need to give her another reason to hate me."

"Wait-" Hope turned to Wade. "-I thought you said _my parents_ were having trouble."

"They are."

"But they're not my parents yet, are they?"

"Well, yeah, technically they are..."

"But not yet. They're the people who will be my parents but not yet! I'm not even born yet!"

"Neither am I," said Nathan.

"Exactly!"

"Well, he's your dad, but technically she's not your mom, not yet. It's really confusing, I know. I'm still trying to figure it all out so good luck!"

Hope eyed them. "Isn't this messing with, like, the whole timeline?"

"Yup," her father said regrettably. "Majorly messing with it."

Hope winced. "Yikes. This is worse than I thought."

There was a silence as the three thought things over.

"So," piped up Wade. "Who's gonna tell Shorty?"

* * *

They were only about twenty minutes into class when there came a knock at the classroom door. "Yes?" Nina called.

A face she did not want to see peeked in. "Uh, hi." Nathan offered a smile. "C-can I talk to you, for a second, please?"

"I'm kind of busy right now, Nathan, as you can see."

The way she so sourly said his name stung. "Please, just quickly. It's really important."

 _Then will you leave me alone?_ she wanted to snap, but not in front of her students. "Excuse me for one moment, class. I'll be right back. Start taking some notes, please."

Reluctantly, she followed Nathan out of the classroom and into the hall, shutting the door behind her. "What is it, I'm teaching?" she demanded, not wanting to make another scene in front of the students.

Nathan rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, well, we've had a surprise. It's both wonderful and terrible. Wonderful for what it means to me, but terrible in how it messes with the timeline."

"What are you talking about?"

He gestured for her to follow him. When they entered the library, Nina almost stopped breathing.

Wade and Domino were already there, as well as an unfamiliar though recognizable girl.

"Hi, uh, _Mom?_ " Hope said.

"Okay, I'm officially confused," said Domino, crossing her arms.

"Hey Auntie Doms." Hope waved.

"Nina, you probably already guessed it, but this is Hope. Our daughter," Nathan said.

"Y-You look like me," she exclaimed, as if in disbelief, staring wide-eyed at the girl.

"You knew about her," said Wade.

"I know. But hearing about something and actually seeing it is quite different. Seeing and believing..." Now there was no denying it at all, for the evidence was right there in front of her, staring her in the face, literally.

Her voice was barely above a whisper. "My own flesh and blood..." She scoffed in disbelief. "How is this even possible?" Despite being shocked and alarmed, she was undeniably drawn to this girl, her daughter. Her and Nathan's daughter. Theirs.

Her family.

"I'll tell you how: when mommy and daddy love each other very much-"

"Wade!"

"What? You asked!" He held up his hands in surrender.

"I don't want to know!"

"But, you do know how, and where, babies-"

"Yes, but I don't care right now, so shut up!" She turned to Nathan, enraged. "What, so now you're trying to guilt-trip me? And you're the one who's so concerned about messing with the future and yet here you go messing it up! And what for? To prove a point?"

"I didn't do this! He did!" Nathan pointed to Wade.

Now she looked betrayed. "Wade, what have you done?"

"I was trying to help-"

"Well you didn't! You've only made it worse! AH!" Suddenly, she let out a pained cry and dropped to her knees, hand against her head where the pain struck.

The others crowded around her.

"Mom!"

"Nina!"

"Shorty, you okay?"

"Excuse me, everyone. May I come through?" They parted as Charles wheeled himself over to Nina.

"It hurts, Charles," she said, knowing that, after their conversation about the Dark Dimension, he would be the only one to understand.

"It's alright, Nina. Let's get you to your room so you can rest. I'll take over your class today."

She wasn't able to utter a 'thank you' as Doms helped her to her feet.

"I'll help her," Nathan offered.

"I got it," she assured him and helped Nina back to her room.

Hope was giving him a look that screamed 'explain!' She obviously sensed the strange tension between her father and future mother.

Charles smiled at the young redhead. "Well, it seems that we have a guest."

Hope returned the smile. "Hello, Professor."

"Hello, Miss Summers."

 _ **Slight 'Avengers: Endgame' spoiler!:** I imagine Hope and Nate's reunion to be like that of Scott and older Cassie :.) She thought her dad was never coming back but there he is! _

_Next chapter will feature some action! And Hope is here to stay - for now! ;)_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope (haha, no pun intended! ;)) you enjoyed! :)_


	18. 18

18 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Only Time_ \- Enya**

"What the hell was that?" Hope demanded to her father as soon as Nina was all settled. "I mean, sure, you two had some tension sometimes, just like any couple, not that I remember it very well cause I was just a kid, but that was some next-level shit."

"Hope Summers, your language problem is almost as bad as mine."

"I won't tell Mom if you don't."

"Deal." They chuckled.

"So," she prompted after a pause. "What's up?"

He sighed and withdrew her bear. Her eyes lit up. "Mr. Cuddles! Aw, I've missed him! I've been looking for him for ten years!"

"I borrowed him for good luck when I left."

"Borrowing without telling is stealing," she said jokingly, making him chuckle again. He wasn't about to get into the dark, terrible future he had stopped, why he had the bear in the first place.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked, quickly noting how the toy was pulsing in and out of focus, lingering on invisible before coming back into focus.

Nathan couldn't watch it. "It's my fault, I screwed up. And now your mom hates me before we've even met or get married or she's even your mom."

"I don't think she hates you."

"Well... She's pretty pissed."

"That's not the same as hating you though."

"True, but I've really messed this one up. She's uncertain about our future together."

"Well, I guess it can't be easy for her, knowing so much about her future."

"Yeah, I know."

"I think it'll all work out, Dad."

"Thanks, Kiddo."

A bunch of students began walking through the halls during class-change, including Jean and Scott.

"Whoa, it's Grandma and Grandpa! They're so young!" Hope looked amused.

"Oh yeah, about them. P.S., they don't know I'm their future son, so maybe don't go up to them and call them Grandma and Grandpa. Plus, they're only like thirty, so they might take offense."

She chuckled. "I've really missed you, Dad. You've been gone for ten years, but now, suddenly, it's like you were never gone at all."

"Aw, so mushy." He put an arm around her and held her close. "But I've missed you too, Kiddo. So much that it hurts."

* * *

That evening, Nathan went to go check on Nina.

He was just about to knock when he heard a pained cry from inside the room - a familiar pained cry. This was followed by a gasp and another cry.

The sound tore through his gut painfully - he had heard this before. When she was badly wounded in battle, even when she was in labour with Hope. He knew just by hearing it that she was in grave pain.

"Nina!" he called. "Nina!" He tried to open the door, but oddly found it locked. She was going to hate him, but he had to help her, so next he shoved himself shoulder-first into the door, aiming to break it down. A couple more shoves and he heard the wood and hinges tear, and he was inside.

The room was dark and he didn't see her until she was standing right before him, hand around his neck, lifting him off the ground. She stared up at him with wide eyes, fully black, like when she had opened the Dark Dimension the other day.

"N-Nina?" She was looking right at him, but he was certain she didn't know him.

"She's gone," she said, her voice low and raspy, unfamiliar, before she launched him down the hall with so much force he went flying. He felt his back strike something hard, and there was another loud burst as more wood tore, and the next thing he knew he was falling, and then crashing to the floor below. She had thrown him through the railing and down the stairs.

He lay there for a moment in shock and pain, and she disappeared. What the hell was that? What was happening?

"Nathan? Nathan!" He heard hurried footsteps, followed by his mother's familiar voice, and suddenly his parents were at his side.

"What happened here?" Scott asked, eyeing the broken railing.

"Nina," he managed, grimacing through the pain.

"Don't move, you're injured," Jean cautioned.

"She's not herself. Something's wrong. Really wrong. We've gotta-"

He didn't have time to try and explain, for he didn't understand it himself.

"Dad!" Now Hope was running over. "Hi, I'm Hope," she quickly introduced herself to her future grandparents. "What happened?"

"Your mom, something's not right. She was in pain, and then suddenly she wasn't herself, and threw me down the hall."

" _She_ did this?"

Nathan nodded.

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know. She just disappeared."

Meanwhile, down in the lab, Charles was meeting with Hank. Hank's words suddenly began to fade from focus as something new tugged at Charles's thoughts: Nina. Only something wasn't quite right:

 _Nina_.

 _Only it wasn't really her._

 _Cerebro_.

 _Nina down in the basement reaching for Cerebro-_

"NINA - NO!"

There was a crashing rumble, and the whole mansion began to shake, beginning to tear itself apart.

"Peter! Get everyone out of here!"

"On it!"

Back upstairs, the Summers family was also caught in the middle of the chaos. Scott blasted a large chunk of rubble into tiny bits to avoid it crushing them, while Jean used her telepathy to try and clear a path.

"We need to get out of here!"

"Everybody out!"

Students and staff from within all the rooms in the house began desperately searching for a way out. Luckily, Peter was making quick progress - luckily he'd had experience clearing out the mansion before.

As they were running past a hall of dorm rooms, Nathan heard crying, and looked into one room to find a scared young girl hiding under her bed.

"Come on, Kid. Let's get you out of here." Nathan took her hand, scooping her up into his arms to carry her, like he remembered doing with Hope when she was little.

Storm was using her powers, like Jean, to try and clear a safe pathway of escape.

"Everyone follow Captain Lucky!" Wade was ushering a group of students to follow Doms.

"Follow me, Kids!" She led them safely out into the courtyard, expertly dodging falling debris, while Peter continued to run people out of the rapidly crumbling house.

With his telepathy, Charles managed to get himself and Hank to safety. Nathan set the little girl down where Hank was gathering the younger children.

"She reminds me of you," he told Hope.

With one last deafening rumble, the mansion collapsed in on itself, creating a burst of dust.

"See, the house does blow up every couple of years," declared Ellie following a moment of stunned silence.

"Please tell me we got everyone out," cried Scott.

"Not everyone." Nathan started running towards the ruins. "Nina!"

"Mom!" Hope took off after him.

"Stay there!" Nathan cried to his daughter, still running. Hope ignored him. This stung a little, but it made sense that he would still treat her like a child - she had been a child when he left.

"She was in the basement," called Charles.

That meant that she would be at the bottom of all this rubble. "Nina? Nina!" As soon as he reached the ruins Nathan began tossing pieces of rubble aside, frantically searching for her.

After a few moments of desperately searching, the rubble began to shift and move and Nathan looked to see Hope using her powers to clear the way.

Finally, they caught a flash of red hair that made their hearts leap.

"Nina! Neen-" Nathan wasted no time in scooping her, bloody and covered in dirt and dust, into his arms, carrying her to where the others had gathered.

"What do we do now?" asked Hank, voicing all their thoughts. "Where do we go?"

"I know of a place," said Charles.

 _Some excitement! ;) I have big plans!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all enjoyed! :)_


	19. 19

19 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _The Great Pretender_ \- Freddie Mercury**

The first thing Nina saw when she stirred awake was a familiar face, though one which she hadn't been expecting to see.

"Erik? Did you kidnap me?"

Her old friend chuckled. "You really think so little of me?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" She had bared witness to a fair share of questionable doings from him, some more justifiable than others.

His smile fell. "Fair enough."

"Where am I?" She immediately knew she wasn't back at the mansion.

"Genosha."

"Your mutant 'safe-haven'?"

"Precisely. Welcome back. In my very own private quarters."

"Ooo, scandalous."

He chuckled.

"Why am I here? How did I get here?"

"The others brought you. You're all here, everyone from the school."

Now her brow furrowed in confusion. "Why? What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

Nina could only shake her head, though looked nervous now.

"You'd better come with me." He offered her a hand to help her up. She was about to ignore it, but the pounding in her head and feathery-lightness of her limbs told her she had better take it to be on the safe side.

"Oh, she's awake. I suppose you want me to tell the rest of our guests." Just as she was getting to her feet, a woman with a purple aura surrounding her entered the room. Psylocke. Nina hadn't crossed paths with her since the whole Apocalypse incident. Apparently, she had kept in touch with a fellow ex-Horseman.

"Yes, thank you, Elizabeth," said Erik. They must have grown close if they were now on a first-name basis.

Nina tried to walk, but swayed with dizziness. Erik wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her, keeping her other hand pressed tightly within his own.

Psylocke was still standing there in the doorway, so they passed her on their way out. "How's Angel?" she asked Nina.

"Why don't you tell me? He was here last I heard." Fellow Horsemen keeping in-touch.

"He's gone now. Thought he might have flown back to you."

"Well, he didn't."

"Hasn't been here for a few years."

"I don't know, then."

"That's enough for now, please, Elizabeth," requested Erik, and continued to guide Nina outside.

The island was much busier now, than the last time she had visited, the result of years of tracking down mutants around the world and bringing them here to this safe-haven. That, and apparently the whole school was here for some reason.

"Shorty! Oh thank God! We were so worried!" There was a flash of red and black and suddenly Wade had scooped her up. Nina's head spun, and she could only groan in response.

"Careful, she's not well," cautioned Erik.

"Nina-" There was Charles, with the rest of the crew in-tow. "How are you feeling?"

"Not so good," she admitted.

"Erik, is there somewhere we can go for a chat?"

"Of course, just this way." Why were Erik and Charles being so agreeable? she wondered. Erik led the group over to a quiet area covered by a tarp-roof, overlooking the serene lake.

"Nina, how much do you remember from last night?" Charles asked gently once they were all settled.

"Should I be worried?"

"Not necessarily."

She thought back. "Nothing." Charles nodded. She thought again. "Wait - Hope, my daughter - _our_ daughter..." There was not much point in denying the fact any further. "She was there, at the mansion - please tell me that was just a dream."

"It wasn't."

"Oh..."

"Hi." Hope gave a little wave, peeking around from behind the others.

"Oh, God..."

"That's good that you remember that. Do you remember anything else?"

"Perhaps now is not the time for questions, Charles," said Erik.

"Since when are you so warm and friendly?" Nathan spoke up.

"She's my friend," Erik defended himself.

"Oh yeah? Then stop checking her out!"

"You know, part of your body is made of metal - I wouldn't push me if I were you."

"Gentlemen, please," broke-in Charles before turning back to her. "Nina, do you remember anything more?"

"Nothing, I'm afraid." He nodded again. "So I blacked out?"

"Yes. Well, you were conscious for some of it, but perhaps not aware. Then you passed out."

 _Conscious but not aware_. "What happened? Why am I all covered in dirt? What did I do? Why can't I remember? Did I hurt anyone?" She had more questions, they just kept pouring out of her mouth.

"Nina we-"

"Did I hurt anyone, Charles?" she pressed.

"Not badly, no-" She flinched and turned away.

"Except for the house," spoke up Wade.

"Not a good time," hissed Doms.

"W-What?"

"We managed to get everyone out of the mansion, before it collapsed," explained Charles.

"Collapsed? Did _I_ do that?"

"You weren't yourself, something was wrong," stepped in Nathan. "It's like you didn't know what you were doing. Like the Prof said, you were conscious, but not aware of what you were doing."

"What _was_ I doing? When I was conscious?"

"You were going to extremes, exhibiting strength we've never seen before. And your eyes were all dark."

"Like fully black?" He nodded. Nina turned to Charles. "The Dark Dimension? Do you still sense it."

He nodded. "Yes, and last night it was very present. When was the last time you opened it? Before the latest mission?"

"Um, that would have been during the alien invasion with the Phoenix Force, in 1992. I did what you always said to do, conceal it, keep it subdued, only use it for emergencies..."

"I know, but I suppose we were naïve to think it wouldn't have long-term consequences."

"I noticed that after the incident with the Dark Phoenix, it was much harder to close again and I was very drained afterwards. Same with this last time."

"Only it didn't close fully," Charles said. She nodded.

Then she jumped to her feet. "I have to close it - now!"

"Nina, sit down, you're still recovering, you don't have the strength," Erik said gently, urging her to sit back down.

"When you were under its control you used Cerebro, that's what destroyed the mansion. I don't think the Dark Dimension is containable anymore," explained Charles. "We're dealing with something we don't understand."

She buried her face in her hands, close to tears now. "What have I done? What have I done?" Then she got up and strode to the edge of the covered space, staring out at the lake beyond. After a moment of silence, she spoke again. "I'm not a mutant, am I."

A pause. Charles shook his head. "No."

She swallowed hard, still facing away from them. "Then what am I?" This time it was a question.

Silence. Then, "I don't know."

 _Duh, duh, duh! We're getting to the real intense part of the story now! ;)_

 _So I just saw 'Dark Phoenix' and I loved it, I thought it was great! Definitely recommend! It does, however, throw some wrinkles in the storyline for this story and Nina's character, but that's the joy of fanfiction! ;)_

 _I have decided that I'm going to write Nina into both 'Dark Phoenix' and 'X-Men: Apocalypse' because in my mind she plays a fairly large role in both. I have also decided that Ben Hardy's Angel did not die in 'Apocalypse' and he and Nina date in the 1990s (I've developed a huge crush on him since seeing him in 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and after watching 'Apocalypse' again! ;) Nina basically ends up dating all my favourite mutants at some point, haha! Again, the joys of fanfiction! ;))_

 _Whew, I think that's all the updates I have, so stay tuned! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	20. 20

20 _._

 _The Past_

 **Chapter Theme Song: The Transference - John Ottman ( _X-Men: Apocalypse_ Soundtrack)**

 _The Nile Valley, 3600 BCE_

When a purple star appeared in the sky over the kingdom, the people took it as a sign. Something was about to happen. The strangest thing? The star appeared during the day, growing brighter as the day stretched on and long into night. Brighter, and larger.

Late into the night it struck, out in the desert. The Pharaoh, the self-proclaimed god, En Sabah Nur, wanted to personally investigate. The surge of new power he had felt and the appearance of the star shortly after could not have been a coincidence.

He led a troop of guards, including his own and most-trusted personal guards, his Four Horsemen, out deep into the desert, far from the kingdom, where they finally found it, the Fallen Star. _Nova_.

A young woman, hair the colour of blazing fire, skin warm like the sands, glowing bronze, shimmering in the moonlight, was the source. She had fallen from the sky, from the stars. A strong power radiated from her, he could sense it. She was the source of the power he had felt.

They brought the unconscious woman back to the kingdom. Only then did she awake.

She was clearly frightened at the unfamiliar surroundings, and the alert guards, but the blue-skinned young man in the elaborate robes seated on the throne before her assured her there was no need to be afraid, for she was safe here. He would keep her safe.

It was clear she was special, she was powerful, immensely so, and dangerous. She was not like the other powerful beings he had encountered, however, whose powers he could heighten and take for himself. Her powers were untouchable by him.

They trained together, in combat and in their powers, growing closer and closer with each passing day. Eventually, they fell in love, and she joined at his side ruling the kingdom. He was the god, and she became his goddess.

One day, long into their rule, the guards came to the rulers and said that a man, a self-proclaimed prophet, had come to see them. The Pharaoh wondered if he would be able to take these man's powers, for the ability of future-sight would be beneficial, perfect for foreseeing the future for himself and his empire.

The supposed prophet bowed low before them and proceeded to tell them of his visions: of their rule and kingdom thriving, until...

Until, _her_.

 _She_ would end it, all of it. _She_ would be the end, a bringer of darkness and destruction.

And he looked right at her, at Nina.

He flew into a rage until the Pharaoh commanded his Horsemen to take the prophet, the traitor, the liar, away to be executed.

As he was being dragged away, the man shouted once more, "You will be the end of us all, of everything! This is only the beginning-" The doors slammed closed behind them.

Nina was only brought back to reality by En slipping his blue hand comfortingly into her own. "Do not listen to him," he whispered.

But she did listen. Those words, spoken so surely and with such fear, would stick with her and haunt her far into the future.

 _Some more backstory for Nina, still keeping it mysterious though... ;)_

 _So I imagine Nina falling in love with the original Apocalypse (featured in the 'Days of Future Past' end-credit scene) and then staying for some hundreds of years throughout him changing bodies and taking new powers, and then she finally has enough - like I said, I want to write her into 'Apocalypse'!_

 _This was a shorter chapter, I know, so I'll try to update the next one soon! Also, I've started writing my new X-Men story, separate from this one (A ColossusxOC and AngelxOC) in case you're interested! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	21. 21

21 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Do You Believe In Magic -_ The Lovin' Spoonful**

"The prophet was right. He said I would bring darkness and destruction. And that was thousands of years ago. As he was being dragged away to execution, he yelled, 'You will be the end of us all, of everything. This is only the beginning.'" Nina shuddered. She remembered En - _Apocalypse_ \- taking her hand and trying to comfort her. "People would whisper. They called me Sorceress of the Night. Who brings darkness."

"Night Witch," said Charles, her X-Men name.

"I thought you said Raven came up with your name."

"She did." There was collective silence. During our final stand with Apocalypse, he said 'all is revealed', when Jean released the Phoenix and I opened the Dark Dimension. Less than ten years later, Jean encountered the Phoenix, and now me with this. He was right. I don't even think he knew who or what I am." She turned to Charles. "You've know for a while now, haven't you?" Her voice broke.

"I've been – speculating – for a long time, yes." His expression was apologetic.

She wouldn't meet his gaze, though he tried to meet hers. "How long?" Nothing. " _How long?_ "

"Since the beginning," he admitted. "Since we met."

Judging by her expression, she hadn't thought it had been for quite _that_ long.

"I thought it best to tell you," piped up Erik.

"Oh, not now," hissed Charles.

"You knew too?" Nina looked betrayed. "My oldest, closest friends." Now she shifted further away from Erik, who was once again standing at her side supportively.

"Nina," tried Charles.

"Look, I understand that you probably had good reason to keep it quiet - in fact part of me is glad, and I appreciate it. But what if you were only putting yourselves in more danger? What if I should have left long ago?"

"This is your home, where you belong. Where your family is."

Nathan wanted to speak up and say that this wasn't her family, but held his tongue.

"Well, technically not this, we're not at the mansion," piped up Wade.

"Now's not the time to be such a smart-ass," whispered Doms.

"What about you, Future-boy?" Nina turned to Nathan, and he felt a surge of hope - she was actually speaking to him, that was good. "Are you hiding anything from me?"

"No."

"I know this is getting into spoiler territory, but I think we're already long past that. What did I tell you I did in the future when this happened?"

"Nothing. It didn't happen."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it never happened. Not by our timeline."

"So why's it happening now?"

He shrugged. "New timeline fragments. New things are happening."

She took a moment to absorb this. "What am I? Am I a ticking time bomb? An unbreakable enigma? A monster in disguise? All of the above? That was one of the first things you said to me when we met-" She turned to Charles. "-'You are an enigma my dear.'"

"Mom," Hope spoke up.

"I'm not your mom!" Nina turned and snapped at her suddenly. "I don't know what I am, but I'm not that." She recoiled away. "I don't know what I am. You don't know what I am. No one knows!"

With that, she fled.

"S-should one of us go after her?" Hope was the first to speak.

"I think it's best if we leave her alone for now. She's very overwhelmed, understandably," said Charles.

"Make yourselves comfortable," Erik told them as the group dispersed.

Nathan turned to his daughter. "I just realized something: speaking of your mom, does she know you're here?"

"Ah, well... No, not exactly..."

"Hope!"

"It was Uncle Wade!"

"Can you please stop calling him that!" Nathan sighed. "Her younger self already hates me, I don't need her hating me too for putting you in such danger."

"Dad, she thinks you're not coming back. She won't hate you. Besides, it's not your fault I'm here."

"Well, it kinda is. Dumb-ass brought you here to help fix our relationship, which my dumb-ass screwed up. He thought it was so badly screwed up that we need our future daughter to fix it."

"Well then you've gotta fix it."

He sighed. "I've been trying - and failing. Mostly failing."

"Well, I think now she could really use some support."

"Yeah, she's got lots of it. Now she's having an identity crisis." He sighed heavily and sat down. "I just wish I could give her a hug and tell her I'm here for her and everything's going to be alright."

"You'll get that chance."

"Charles!" A spiky-haired figure in leather was running through the trees towards them.

"Logan!" Charles wheeled over to the other man.

"Oh great, this guy again," sighed Nathan.

"Whoa, it's Wolverine!" cried Hope.

"What the hell happened?" Logan cried. "I went to the mansion, but it's-"

"Yes, Logan. Something happened to Nina - _is_ happening to her. We came here, where we'll be safe."

"Well is she okay?"

"Yes, whatever happened has passed, for now. She's upset though, and overwhelmed. How did you know to come here?"

"I contacted him," said Erik. "I felt Nina could use the support of those closest to her."

"Well aren't you sweet," sneered Nathan, unable to help himself.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Erik rose to his feet defensively.

"Careful, old man."

"You would do well to hold your tongue."

"Trust me, you're not close to her."

"I was at one time."

"Well not anymore."

"Dad, stand down," said Hope, stepping between the two men. "Everyone's under a lot of stress, we don't need a fight. Besides, Mom wouldn't like that."

"Aw, I was thinking that would have been pretty damn epic!" whined Wade.

Meanwhile, Nina sat overlooking the lake, holding her hand above the water, causing various swirls.

"Hey." Jean sat down next to her. "I thought you might want to talk, redhead to redhead. How are you feeling?"

"Confused and scared," Nina admitted.

She nodded. "Understandable. You know, I kind of know exactly what you're going through."

"Yes, but you obtained the power of the Phoenix. This is something I've had the potential for my entire life."

"You've managed it well until now."

"I'm not sure about 'well'. I appreciate it Jean, but I think I'd like to be alone now. I think it's for the best."

Jean nodded, staring out at the lake for a few more moments before getting up and going to rejoin the others.

Nina sat by the lake for a few more minutes before getting up herself. Instead of rejoining the others, she headed into the woods, hoping a walk might help to clear her frantic mind.

She was wandering, not really paying attention to where she was going.

The sudden beating of wings overhead made her jump and caused her to look up into the myriad of branches. But there were no birds in sight.

Something landed behind her and she whirled around, but fear quickly turned into relief.

"Angel!"

 _Was hoping to update this sooner, but had a busy weekend and week!_

 _Nina saying 'we don't know who I am' was inspired by Carol in 'Captain Marvel' being unsure of who she was!_

 _Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	22. 22

22 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _I'm Going Slightly Mad_ \- Queen**

She jumped into his arms.

It had been years since they had seen each other, he drawn to coming to Genosha. But, as Psylocke had said, he hadn't been here in a while either.

"It's so good to see you."

"You as well. Magneto contacted me."

"He did?"

"Yeah, said you were in trouble. Are you alright?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm not."

He sensed her unease right away. "What happened?"

"I-I don't know."

They walked together back to the main village area, Nina explaining, or trying to explain, what was going on.

When Nina showed up again walking closely beside a blond man with metal wings and swirling tattoos across his temples, Nathan knew exactly who he was. He couldn't help the words that escaped his mouth: "Him too?"

Nina shot him a death glare. Hope elbowed him in the ribs. "Not helping!" his daughter hissed. "Stop being so jealous. No one likes jealousy, especially not Mom."

"I know."

"She's confused, she's scared, she's upset - she wants to be around people she's close to and trusts."

"I know. I just want it to be me."

"It is, in the future, with Mom. Try and keep that in mind."

He couldn't help but smile a little at this. "Thanks, Kiddo."

"Hey, it's Pigeon Wings!" cried Wade. "Where was he when we needed him? And what's with all these X-Men retaining their youthful appearance? It's so not fair."

"Says the guy who literally cannot die," Doms reminded him.

"Yeah, but I don't look very nice. I mean, just look at him!"

"Yeah but you can't die! I'd say you got pretty lucky too."

"Settle down, Captain Luckypants." Doms rolled her eyes.

Now Nina, Angel, Erik, Storm, and Psylocke were all standing in close proximity.

"Whoa, reunion of the Four Horsemen and the Goddess," Wade whispered. "That's awkward. And intense. And kinda scary. I'm gonna go join them!"

Despite being comforted, Nina was also suddenly feeling very overwhelmed by all this company. "I-I think I'm going to go lie down. It's been a long day."

"You can take my room," offered Erik.

"Thank you, Erik." She was too tired to argue or request a different room.

"I'll walk with you," Nathan offered. Hope gave him a thumbs-up.

"Um... That's okay, I'm fine. Thanks, though."

"You aren't yourself, something's wrong."

She flinched away. "I'm wrong?"

"No, not _you_. I'd like to help. Please, let me help you-"

"But we don't even know what's going on!" She shook her head. "I'd like some time alone, please. Maybe we can talk later."

"Okay, yeah, later. Sounds good. When you're feeling better." He wanted to - and needed to - talk to her, and she had agreed to talk, so that was a step forward, reassuring. Something always seemed to get in the way.

* * *

When Nathan returned to Nina's room - well, Erik's room - later that evening to see her and hopefully chat, he was nervous. This was strange because he hadn't been nervous around her since before they started dating, many years ago (by his timeline). But with so much at stake now, thanks to him, he was very stressed to say the least.

 _Think before you speak. Don't let yourself say stuff out of anger and frustration, that'll just make all this worse. She's your wife, you love her and care about her, and want to help her. That's why you're here._

He had even taken a long walk through the woods earlier, collecting a bouquet of flowers for her.

However, it was difficult to remain calm when he reached the door to the room and was met by Charles, Erik, Logan, and Angel all at once.

He sighed. "Looks like we all had the same idea..."

"Go ahead, Nathan," Charles urged.

"Why him?" demanded Erik.

"Yeah, she's _my_ girlfriend," added Logan.

"Yeah, who's this guy?" asked Angel.

"How about you all take turns visiting her?" All five men turned to face a serious-looking redhead, who bore striking resemblance to the woman they were speaking of. "Or, I could go first," Hope suggested. Thankfully, they all agreed.

She knocked softly on the door.

"Who is it?"

"Hi, uh, _Nina_. It's Hope." No response. "May I come in?"

Silence, until, "door's unlocked."

The room was dark, the curtains drawn. Through the darkness she could still just make out Nina's striking red hair amongst the shadows. She was huddled on the bed, wrapped in a blanket, her back to Hope.

"How are you feeling?" Hope ventured.

"Okay, I guess."

"Maybe a little better?"

"I'm not sure. I still feel very drained, and yet like I could snap at any given moment..." She sucked in a breath, and visibly shuddered.

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault."

"Well, I can tell my presence is causing you some stress."

"I never thought I would have a child," Nina admitted. "And yet, here she is - here _you_ are - standing before me..." Finally, she turned to face Hope. There was a pause before she asked: "Did Nathan send you?"

"No, I wanted to come and see how you were doing. But, I also wanted to tell you how worried he is, for you, for the future."

"I just don't know if that's the kind of future I'm meant to have - that's best for me. Especially with the current circumstances."

"Well, speaking from personal experience, I think you do great."

Nina chuckled. "I'm already proud of you and I barely even know you." She wiped her nose - a very obvious smear of blood now on the back of her hand.

"Mom-"

"I'm not your Mom."

"Sorry, but are you hurt?" Were those tears in her eyes, threatening to fall? A pained grimace creasing her features? "What are you doing?"

"I'm just trying to concentrate on controlling my power."

She was shaking heavily, Hope noticed, as though she were shivering. "But it's hurting you."

"As long as I can control it-"

"Yeah but you're hurt."

"I'm fine."

"But-"

"It's worked before..." There was an irritated edge to her voice now. "So why isn't it working now?!"

"What's not working?"

"Containing it, controlling it. Just like Charles always told me to do. Fight it, subdue it. Don't let it gain control."

"Maybe you're beyond that now."

"No! No I can't be. I have to - I have-" A pained cry escaped her lips.

"Mom - stop!" Hope rushed forward.

"DON'T!"

A surge of energy blasted around Nina's body and shot back, knocking Hope down forcefully and skinning her arm badly to the point of drawing blood.

The surge of Nina's rage and pain was gone as quickly as it came, and was instantly replaced by horror. "Oh, no..."

"I'm fine!" Hope leapt to her feet, hand on her injured arm, and put on a brave face. "Really, I'm fine."

"Oh my God - I'm, I'm so, so sor-"

"Don't be - it's fine, really."

"No it's not. I hurt you, my daughter..." She turned away. "Please go, now. Before I hurt you more."

It was hurting her to see her mother like this. "Mom - Nina - it's not your fault."

"Yes, it is."

 _Getting more dramatic! D: So excited about having Angel back, though! ;) haha!_

 _Thanks so much for reading and, as always, I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	23. 23

23 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _All Those Voices_ \- John Ottman, _X-Men: Days of Future Past_ Soundtrack**

"How'd it go?" Nathan asked Hope when she rejoined the others.

"Uh, not so well..."

"Hope?"

"She's upset, understandably. I'm really worried, Dad."

He sighed and nodded. "Yeah, me too. Maybe I should-"

"I'm not so sure that's such a good idea."

"What happened?" He could sense something was wrong.

Slowly, Hope moved her hand to reveal her skinned, bloody arm.

Nathan's jaw dropped. " _She_ did that?"

"By accident. It was kind of my fault, I wouldn't leave her alone. She feels awful, she didn't mean to. She's unstable, and I'm worried about her."

Nathan hurried inside the hut.

"Dad-"

"I can help."

* * *

Nina couldn't believe what she'd done. _I hurt her, my own daughter. I'm a horrible mother._

 _Don't think that._

She sighed. "I'm not in the mood to talk, Charles."

 _I know. That's why I thought we'd do it this way instead._

"Same thing."

 _Not really. Talk to me, Nina. Please._

She sighed. "I'm scared."

 _I know. And I wish I could be of more help._

"It's not your fault."

 _It's not yours, either._

"Yes it is! I hurt her, my own daughter! I destroyed the mansion and put you all in danger."

 _Yes, but none of that was intentional._

"No, but I still did it."

There was a pause, a long pause. _I've been thinking... What if instead of fighting it, you need to accept the darkness, let it in?_

"Are you mad?"

 _Perhaps. But maybe it's worth a try._

"And all the years, decades, of you telling me to contain it?"

 _Maybe I was wrong. Afraid of what may happen if you didn't. We were both afraid - both_ are _. But now I think it's time to face those fears._

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I'm hurting people, Charles!"

 _But you're also hurting yourself. You're in pain, this is eating away at you. Please Nina, forget what I said before. You need to accept the darkness. Let it in._

"And then what?! Destroy everything?!"

 _It will destroy everything if you don't accept it and try to control it. You're becoming your own fear. You're letting it take over. Accept it, make it yours. You're in charge here. You can't keep fighting it._

"Yes, I can."

 _Not without hurting yourself. Please, don't do that._

"It's too late for that."

 _Nina-_

"But maybe - hopefully - not to late to keep fighting it and holding it off. It's worked before, all this time."

 _Until now._

He was right on that, but she refused to accept his absurd suggestion. She couldn't just accept the darkness, that could be fatal for them all. So she would just continue to try and fight it - no matter how much it hurt.

* * *

"Nina's gone."

" _What_?"

Upon finding Erik's room empty and Nina to have seemingly vanished, Nathan and Hope hurried to find the others and deliver the news.

"She's gone, disappeared."

"But that makes no sense, I just spoke with her," said Charles. "Telepathically."

"Well, she's not there."

"Why would she just leave?" asked Scott.

"Because she was afraid of hurting us," said Charles.

"She's unstable," Hope added. "She's losing control, rapidly."

"Then we'd better find her," said Erik. "Search the island."

* * *

Everyone split up, each taking a different corner of the island to search.

Wade was calling out. "Shorty! Shorty, where you at?"

Angel, Storm, and Jean took to the skies, trying to get a better overall view of the island.

Psylocke cornered Erik. "Having her here is only putting the rest of us in danger."

"Elizabeth-" She knew he wouldn't be so easily swayed. Erik was extremely stubborn.

"I'm serious, Erik. She's losing it, losing control-"

"I don't think that's quite it."

"You're just seeing what you want to see because she's your friend. Don't let yourself be blinded because of that. You know what happened last time that other girl lost control. What happened to Raven-"

"I know very well what happened last time, I don't need a reminder. I told you not to bring it up." He didn't quite snap back at her, but his tone was on the verge of it. She knew she had been opening up an old wound, but if it would make him see...

She remained firm. "I'm just making a point. Wanting to make sure something like that doesn't happen again. You would do well to be more cautious."

"I'm always cautious." With that, he stalked away to continue his search.

* * *

The search continued, but to no avail. Nina obviously didn't want to be found.

"Any luck with the telepathy, Professor?" Hope asked.

"I'm afraid not. She's blocking me out. I can't reach her."

"I don't think she's on the island anymore," said Erik. "We would have found her by now."

"Well, we're not certain of that. We need to keep looking," said Nathan. "We have to. We've gotta find her."

"I've been telling her to control it, subdue it, fight it, but all it's done is tear her apart." Charles appeared on the verge of tears. "I've hurt her without meaning to."

"You we're doing what you thought was right, Charles. What was best for her, to keep her safe," Erik assured him, for once not against the other man, laying a hand on his old friend's shoulder.

"Yeah, and what good has that ever done?" spat Nathan. "When has your passiveness ever achieved anything, _Professor_?" he finished mockingly.

"Dad," hissed Hope in protest, but Erik stepped in.

"I tend to agree with you, but not this time. That's enough."

"You're no better."

"And you know all, do you?"

"I've seen the future, seen where this leads us. And all that's left is death, darkness, destruction, and the end of the X-Men and Mutantkind as you know it."

"Wow, spoilers much," piped up Wade.

"You think yours is the only family at stake here?" Charles demanded suddenly. "In the beginning, we were each other's family when we had no one else. Outcasts, with nowhere else to go, shamed by society. Others care about Nina too, Nathan. Let them."

* * *

Hope found her father sitting by the bank of the lake, staring out at the almost strangely calm water.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Just okay. You?"

"Okay too." Silence. "The Professor has a point, the other's care about her just as much."

"I really thought I could help. I wanted to, so badly..."

"Dad?" Hope sat down beside him.

"Your mom, Nina... I just wanted to help her so badly, but all I did was make everything worse."

"This is _not_ your fault."

"It somewhat is. And now I've put our whole future at risk. Not just mine, but hers, and yours too. God, I love her so much. She doesn't know that yet, doesn't believe it, but I do."

"Of course you do. And she knows it, trust me. And she loves you just as much, back home, in the future. Know that, and hold onto it. And this isn't over yet, far from it in fact. You've still got time to make things right."

"Yeah..."

"I think Magneto's right, she's not on the island anymore."

Nathan just nodded.

 _Finally making some progress! It's a Christmas miracle! ;)_

 _Wow, it's been so long and I'm so sorry! On top of busy life, I'm honestly feeling a little stuck with this story :( I know where I want to go, I'm just feeling a little stuck in the middle and not sure how to get there... But, based on my progress with this chapter, I'm feeling a bit better about it!_

 _May have mentioned this before, but in an interview from the making of 'Deadpool 2', they said Cable didn't agree with either Charles or Erik's views, so that's what I'm referencing here!_

 _Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) And thank you for sticking with me all this time!)_


	24. 24

24 _._

 _The Future_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Time (Clock of the Heart)_ \- Culture Club**

Nina couldn't sleep. Again. With a highly expansive mind and cosmic-level powers that she was still, after all these years, decades, struggling with, this often happened, leaving her constantly in a state of restlessness. That, and the visions that came with it.

What was most concerning to her, besides the fact that they kept her awake at night and unable to get to sleep, was that she hadn't the faintest clue what they were or what they meant. No one seemed to know. Not her, not Charles, her mentor and oldest, closest friend. Not even her husband.

"More dreams?" Speaking of her husband - Nathan had awoken, and joined her by the window.

"Just because I can't sleep doesn't mean you have to wait up too." She knew while she was the one with the inability to sleep, it put a strain on him as well as he worried about her. And the inexplainable visions seemed to have become more frequent, so all the more worrying.

"I don't want you to feel alone. I'm here for you, always. Even in the middle of the night when you can't sleep." Nathan, her husband, such a sweetheart.

She looked up at him with a sleepy smile. He wrapped his arms around her and she leaned into his embrace. She felt him place a kiss to the top of her head.

"What did you see this time?" He always got her to try and describe it, fuzzy and strange as it may be, try to work through whatever it was and what it might mean.

"That's the thing - this time there was nothing, only darkness."

"Maybe that's not such a bad thing."

"How could it not be?"

"Not all darkness is bad. Just think, without the dark, we'd never see the stars."

"You stole that."

"Borrowed it. But it's true."

She just rolled her eyes, but was smiling. That smile quickly fell though as she continued. "I couldn't see anything. I don't understand, and that scares me. And I'm scared to close my eyes because I don't know what I'll see, what I'll find..."

"Aw Sweetheart, I'm sorry."

"Thank goodness I have you." Now she was smiling again, the smile fading quickly once more though, this time due to a big yawn. She was just so tired.

They went back to bed. He awoke a couple of hours later to find her awake again, or maybe even still awake. He could tell she was majorly stressed out, from both the sleeplessness and the strange, dark visions.

"Come on, how about we go for a walk," he suggested.

She suppressed another yawn. "It's the middle of the night."

He shrugged. "Perfect time for a romantic stroll."

She agreed, and minutes later saw them doing just that, strolling slowly hand-in-hand down the dark, quiet street.

"Thank you, for doing this," she said.

"Of course, Sweetheart." He kissed her head. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"That you're having all this trouble sleeping."

"Thanks, Love. But you don't have to apologize for it."

"I just wish I could help make it better."

"You are. Thank you." She stopped walking to give him a smile, a tired smile, but a grateful, full-of-love smile.

What happened next happened so suddenly, she didn't even see the source of it.

Nathan was suddenly crying out in pain, stabbed in the side.

"NATHAN!" All she saw was shadow as she was forcefully thrown back away from him, smashing through the front window of a nearby shop. Madly disoriented, she scrambled to her feet and back out into the street where Nate was now being thrashed around by the same shadows that had attacked her.

"HEY!" She ignited her palms with energy. "Hands off my husband!"

The shadows seemed to turn to face her and she met this by throwing the fistful of energy towards it - whatever it was.

She raced to Nate's side - he had a deep cut along his side. "Nate! Oh my god - can you move?"

"Nina, get out of here!"

"No!"

"Maybe this midnight walk thing wasn't such a good idea."

"Yeah, maybe we should have stayed in bed, sleeplessness and all." She tried to help him to his feet, him leaning on her for support. Together, they staggered down the street, she casting a protective field around them.

"What the hell was that thing?" he cried.

"I don't know, did you see anything?"

"No, nothing."

"Me neither."

The street around them was becoming so dark they could hardly make out what was in front of them. The shadow-things were back.

"Ah!" Nathan cried out in pain and Nina lost her grip on him, he crumbling to the ground. It was becoming darker still, if that were even possible, and Nina promised herself she wouldn't lose sight of him. She grabbed his hand, wanting to hold him, wanting to be close.

"Nina, you've gotta go-"

"Shut up, I'm not leaving you."

"Neen, please-"

"Do not play the chivalry game right now."

"Nina-"

"Nate, I'm pregnant."

This shut him up for a moment. "What?! You shouldn't be fighting!"

"It's not an ideal situation!" she cried, exasperated. "But I'm not going anywhere."

There was a rumbling around them followed by a crash, and the vicious shadows appeared again, closing in, surrounding them.

Nina rose to her feet, standing between the shadows and Nate, ready to face them and protect herself and her injured husband. And their unborn child.

Through the darkness surrounding them, a figure emerged, the source of all this, finally coming into focus. Nina stood strong, igniting her fists again, ready to face whoever - or whatever - it was that was attacking them for some unknown reason.

Or, at least, she thought she was ready. That is, until she saw not what it was, but _who_ it was.

Finally, the mysterious, destructive figure emerged from the shadows just enough for her to make out their face.

And suddenly, it all became frighteningly clear, and yet equally shocking.

Nina's jaw dropped. "No, not you."

 _This scene was inspired by the Wanda and Vision Scotland scene in 'Avengers: Infinity War' :) I realized how similar this scene is to the first chapter of my Yelena Belova story - superheroes plagued with visions to can't sleep being comforted by their loves - seems to be a common theme in my writing ;)_

 _Finally think I understand where this is all going now, what it's all leading to, been leading to! I really need to start outlining better!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) Got some big surprises coming soon! ;)_


	25. 25

25 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Do You Really Want to Hurt Me_ \- Culture Club**

The visions and voices in her head were nothing new to her, but Nina wondered who was trying to speak to her, and what they meant. Was it a warning? They had only become clearer since she had fled the island.

 _No, not exactly._

Now, whoever it was, was answering right back.

She stopped walking, standing still and facing whoever or whatever it was, giving them her full attention for once. "Who are you?"

 _You know who I am._

"No, I don't."

 _Yes, you do. You know. And part of you always has known. You just don't want to believe it._

"No, you're right, I don't..." It was strange, like she was talking to herself.

The voice seemed to chuckle. _That's because you are._

* * *

Back on Genosha, panic had settled amongst the X-Men as everyone regrouped. And X-Force, Wade was quick to differentiate.

"Nina's gone!"

"Yeah, we know!" said Wade.

"What?"

"She ran away!"

"Charles, can you find her?" asked Logan.

"She's – she's blocking me out?"

"She can do that?"

"Yes, though she never has before."

"Something must be really wrong, then."

Charles nodded. "Yes. And this time I sense only darkness. She's in danger. We all are."

* * *

How could she have never recognized the voice as her own?

The voice - _her_ voice, her own voice - was clear now. And her own image had joined it, creating the full illusion.

The signature purple detailing was gone from her suit, leaving it all black, like a shadow. Even her hair, which had always been varying shades of fiery red, was black as well.

So this was the future - _her_ future.

A deep sense of unsettlement descended upon her, much like discovering her own death in the dark future Nathan had prevented. One dark future to the next, it would seem. Perhaps that was to be her destiny.

"Yes, it is, exactly that: your destiny."

"Stop reading my mind."

Dark Nina smirked. "Our mind. Your thoughts are mine. Can't help it."

Nina gestured to her dark reflection. "So this is it then, my future."

"Oh don't sound so disappointed. I'm you, a better version of you, stronger. What you are becoming."

"And I have no choice?"

"You're already on the path that leads to this."

So it would seem.

"It's good that you left them," Dark Nina said, sensing when Nina's thoughts drifted back to her friends, who she was just now realizing she had so hastily abandoned. "Finally. They'll only hold you back. They don't understand you."

"Neither do I," she admitted.

Dark Nina's grin stretched further. "But you can change that."

"How?"

"Think of how lonely you are. They'll never understand, you can't make them. They can try, but will fail. But this will make that all go away. Accept the darkness and see what you become! All reality at your fingertips - the possibilities are endless! And all that fear you feel about not being in control - well let me tell you, you are in _full_ control. It's all yours."

This version of her was strikingly confident, unlike she had ever known herself to be. Sure, she had gained confidence over the years at the mansion and with the X-Men, but not like this and certainly not to this extent.

"And not only are you in control of your power for once - finally - but also your future... You can make it what ever you want. You don't have to succumb to what it is now: tied down, married to that man you don't love, trapped in a life you are uncertain and afraid of."

"But I do love him in the future - apparently... Somehow..."

Dark Future Nina just shrugged, brushing this aside as though it were nothing.

"You fear what the future holds, but you do not need to fear it. They need to fear you-"

"I don't want them to fear me."

"They already do."

She sighed, the words like a painful stab, even though she already knew them to be true. Deep down, she had always known. "I know."

"They always have, and they always will. People fear what they don't understand. Some things are not meant to be understood."

"But-"

"But what? You already know this to be true, why deny it? There's no point. So stop denying, and start doing."

"Doing what?"

"What you were meant to do. You remember what the prophet said."

"I tried to forget it."

"That you would bring darkness and destruction - but what he didn't know was that it would be for you to forge your way forward."

So this was what had been calling out to her for so long.

"Yes. And, will you answer the call? "Dark Nina was now standing uncomfortably close. Nina wanted to back away, but was frozen to her spot. "What will you do - Nina Nova?"

Nina felt her lips quivering. "I don't want to be afraid anymore. I don't want to hold back who I am."

Her dark self smirked again, something shining within her eyes that Nina didn't recognize. "Good. You're the Night Witch - let's show them some magic."

* * *

"Hey..." Nathan turned to see Hank, in the doorway of the cabin where Nathan had sought some peace. "I'm sorry about Nina." Nathan just grunted in reply. "But, about that, sort of-" Hank held out his hand, which held a familiar-looking object.

Nathan's time-travel device.

"Probably not great timing, but I've managed to get it working - I think. It should be good for one charge. So choose wisely."

Nathan was suddenly on his feet grabbing the device out of the other man's hands. "I will." _I know exactly where I'm going._ "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me."

Hank nodded, "You're welcome. Glad I could help. I hope it works and you can get back to your family."

 _Me too._

Hank left, leaving Nathan staring down at the small round device in his hand, that was fixed, that worked again, that held the power to take him home. All he had to do was turn it and press the top...

He caught himself and stopped, hand already reaching out to turn the top of the device.

 _What am I doing?_

He stopped himself. He was leaving, thinking that everything would be fine again once he got home, everything would be _right_. He hoped so, but he didn't know so. In fact, he had no assurance of this at all.

Bold of him to assume he'd have a family and home to return to after all this.

He had just assumed he'd be going back to his life, his future as he knew it. But he wouldn't, he couldn't, not now - so much had changed, had been changed. Sure, it may be similar, but it wouldn't be exactly the same.

All thanks to him.

And what was he doing? He was running away from a mess he had helped to create. Leaving now would be taking the easy way out. But if he left, he had no idea of what he would find when he returned 'home'. Would it even still be home? The thought and question haunted him.

But he had no guarantee of that, absolutely no guarantee. He hadn't the faintest idea of what he would find upon returning home now that he had been here, or what he wouldn't find...

He couldn't leave now. He couldn't. He wanted to, but he wasn't finished here, not yet.

He slipped the device into his pocket. He had originally come here to save his wife and daughter, and that was exactly what he intended to do now.

His mission wasn't over yet.

 _The final battle is on the horizon! I really enjoyed writing this chapter :)_

 _Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed (enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it)! :)_


	26. 26

26 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Deletion_ \- Hans Zimmer ( _Dark Phoenix_ Soundtrack)**

"It's spreading."

"What is?"

"The Darkness."

Erik had spent the last several minutes standing at the edge of the island, watching dark 'storm clouds' approach. "Charles-"

"I know," sighed the telepath.

"We need to get to her, now," cried Hope.

"Hey, y'all might wanna come see this-" Wade and the other X-Force members had gathered around an old TV set in one of the cabins. "Wow, the reception out here in the middle of nowhere is actually pretty good." He began flipping channels - all over the world it was the same: darkness rolling in, looming in the distance, growing steadily closer.

"She's tearing things apart. Perhaps not intentionally, but she's destroying. Rather, it's destroying while she loses control," Charles said, sensing it.

"It's going to consume the world," added Erik. "Destroy it."

"Not just the world, my friend," said Charles gravely. "This is the Dark Dimension, the dark side of reality we're talking about. It's threatening the whole universe."

This was met by silence, until Wade's, "Oh shit."

"Yeah, this'll throw the whole universe off-balance," sighed Nathan.

"Wrong franchise, Thanos," said Wade. "Or is it now? Cause Disney bought Fox so now all the X-Men are Marvel Studios property, and all the X-Men movies are on Disney+ – ugh, so confusing!"

"We could really use our reality-warping friend then," said Doms, getting back on track.

"Yeah, too bad she's the one hell-bent on destroying us and everything," agreed Wade.

"Not her, the dark force that's influencing her," Charles corrected.

Nathan ignored Wade - he was becoming rather good at doing so. "Where would Nina go?"

"She's your wife, Nathan," said Charles. "You know where she'd go."

Nathan nodded. "The mansion."

* * *

That nagging, anxious voice in your head, it was like having that, only stronger. Only, she had that voice in full embodiment glued to her side, appearing like her own dark clone, which, really, she was.

The underground floors of the mansion were fairly in tact still, only with everything else having collapsed on top of them, which was where the two Nina's presently were.

"They're coming," Dark Future Nina alerted present Nina.

"I know. My friends."

"Your captors."

"My _friends_. They won't go down without a fight."

"Then fight them. Show them who you are, your strength. Remember, you can finish this once and for all. You need to change though." Dark Nina cringed at Nina's torn and dirty attire.

"I know. You need armour if you're going to fight a war."

"What are you going to wear then?"

Nina held up the armour she had worn during the battle with Apocalypse back in 1983. "What I wore last time I fought alongside the gods."

* * *

The ruins of the mansion appeared deserted. The whole campus looked like a barren wasteland, with the crumbled house at the centre, the rest being readily consumed by the shadowy-darkness. The schoolyard was hardly recognizable.

Nathan had insisted he go in first. There was some arguing to this, mostly from his daughter, but he insisted. He had to do this.

They had somewhat of a plan. Nathan would go in first and draw Nina out, try to calm her down, while the others would be ready to step in if need be - which was pretty much guaranteed at this point. Then, Kurt would teleport Charles down to Cerebro where he would work to counter the darkness while the team distracted Nina.

"You shouldn't have come here." Suddenly, she was there, Nina, in amongst the shadows ahead of him, appearing like a shadow herself, the only bright part distinguishing her from the gloom being her hair.

"I'm not just going to sit back and watch you hurt yourself."

"This was always meant to happen, Nathan. Apparently."

"I don't believe that."

"You might want to start believing it. Besides, we're too late - you're too late."

"You can still stop this."

"No, I can't."

"Yes, you can."

"I'm not strong enough."

"Yes you are. I believe in you. I always have. Now is no different."

"I've tried, I can't." Although he couldn't make out her expression - it was too dark - she sounded so broken, so defeated, so afraid, and his heart wrenched.

"The voice is so loud, so present - I just want it to go away-" Now she held either side of her head as though trying to block said voice out. While she could see her dark future self, he could not.

"You're probably gonna hate me for this, but just remember that you used this trick on me first-" He took her face in his hands and kissed her, deeply. He pulled away a few moments later and just held her, comforting her. He would not fail her this time.

Next thing he knew he was thrown back, smashing through part of a wall that had still been standing, and now wasn't.

"I told you that was a shit idea!" called Wade as the rest of the team emerged, suited up, armed, and ready.

They weren't fast enough, however, either that or Nina acted too fast. She held out her hand - Nathan grasped at his neck as his airways were suddenly cut off. Nina rose off the ground, taking him with her, still choking him.

"DAD!"

There was a blast of pink as Hope swooped it - literally. The Phoenix Force blast knocked Nina back, flying back and crashing into some rubble.

"Are you okay?" Hope cried as her father fell to his knees, gasping for breath. She didn't get an answer though, as a shadowy-dark blast was forming ahead of them. "Everyone behind me!" she ordered, before casting a Phoenix blast around the whole team to counter the blast coming from Nina.

"Split up," said Erik. "Try to reach her."

The team split, each person cautiously making their way through the shadows towards Nina, speaking gentle words of comfort.

"You're stronger than this, Nina," Erik said.

"You've got a place here with us, Ms. Nova. Just like you told me before," added Russell.

"You got this, Bestie," said Doms. "We're here for you."

"Stop, stop - STOP!" Another blast burst around them, shaking the whole ground. What was left of the mansion was readily being destroyed, the darkness around them still all-consuming.

"Here, let me try - hey Shorty!" Wade called. A huge pile of rubble was thrown on top of him. "Yup, she's definitely pissed," he confirmed as he crawled out of the pile.

"Erik!" Psylocke shouted over the commotion. "You know what has to be done!"

"NO!"

"It's too late. She's too far gone now. You can't get her back."

"No, Elizabeth! Don't you dare-" Erik rushed forward, now hell-bent on keeping himself between her and Nina.

Scott was firing a steady blast from his visor where he and Storm were trying to break apart the shadows which only seemed to be growing thicker. He was knocked off-balance, however, this causing the blast to hit Jean and strike her down.

"Jean!" He rushed over, Nathan noticing this too and following. "Jean, I'm so sorry-"

"It's not your fault, Scott," she assured him, though it was clear she was in a lot of pain.

"Mom-" The word slipped out before Nathan could catch himself. He had been so focused this whole time on saving his wife and daughter and their future together that he had hardly thought about his parents, and what that could do to affect his own personal timeline. "Oh, shit-"

"It's all right," Jean assured him, giving him a knowing look. Scott, however, looked both shocked and confused. "Nathan, it's all right."

"Uh, in case you hadn't noticed, this isn't working!" Wade was yelling over the commotion.

"Keep trying!" Hope tried to blast away some of the shadows, but they were too strong, and this instead blasted her back. She went crashing to the ground.

Suddenly, a familiar voice cried out.

"Hope Summers!"

Hope appeared genuinely confused. " _Mom_?"

 _Cliffhanger! ;) We have now reached the final battle - yay! This all looks very epic in my head - so hopefully that comes across! ;) Battle scenes are very difficult to write!_

 _This also means we are rapidly approaching the end of this story :( don't worry, though, there's still a few more chapters ahead! ;) Thanks so much for reading, and, as always, I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	27. 27

27 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Frameshift_ \- Hans Zimmer ( _Dark Phoenix_ Soundtrack)**

Nina marched right over to the fallen phoenix. Only this Nina was different - she had short, shoulder-length dark red hair and wore a purple suit and cloak bearing the signature X marking for both the X-Men and X-Force teams. There was a matching purple streak in her hair.

"Mom?" Hope cried as Nina helped her to her feet. "What, how-"

"I tracked you down, followed you. What the hell were you thinking jumping through time like that?! And backwards in time?! And without telling me!"

"Mom-"

"Do you have any idea how worried I have been?! You cannot do that to me, Hope! I cannot lose you too!" She pulled her daughter into a crushing hug.

"I know, and I'm sorry, but it was urgent, I swear. And, speaking of that, it's okay, Mom. I was in good hands, I promise."

Nina was obviously flustered by how lightly her daughter was taking this whole situation, and confused by what was going on. "What are you - LOOK OUT!" Nina dove forward, grabbing her daughter and moving her out of the way as a giant, looming shadow descended upon them, blasting back at the dark energy with her own purple-coloured energy with a yell. Nothing came between Nina Summers and her family, nothing. Not even time and reality themselves.

As mother and daughter recovered, Nina fussing over Hope while Hope assured her she was fine, a shadow emerged from the smoke towards them.

Nina resumed a fighting stance - that was, until she saw the familiar silhouette. This wasn't one of the shadows that was attacking them.

Nina froze, jaw falling open and eyes widening as Nathan appeared before them out of the shadows. "W-w-what? I-I don't understand-" she stammered. She looked as though she might burst into tears.

A tear did trickle down her cheek as he approached. He reached out and tenderly wiped it away while she stared speechless up at him, her lips moving slightly, but making no sound.

"I-impossible..." she finally breathed.

"That just seems to be our whole lives, doesn't it?" he chuckled. "Doing the impossible."

Slowly and almost hesitantly, Nina reached out to touch his arm, as if to make sure he was really there standing before her.

"You're here," she whispered. "You're really here."

"I'm here," he assured her.

"It's been so long... I didn't know what to think when you didn't come back..."

"I'm so sorry, Neen."

"Nate, I thought you were dead. Now I know you're not. Don't apologize."

They stood, still and silent for a moment.

"B-but, I don't understand - how, _why_ are you here?" she asked.

He sighed. "It's a long story."

They continued to stare at each other, gazes locked, despite the chaos surrounding them.

Before they could embrace, however, they were suddenly shot back by a particularly strong blast, from none other than present Nina herself. She was clearly still resisting the future, their future together.

"MOM, DAD!" Hope yelled.

"That's me!" cried Nina, stumbling to her feet while recovering from the blast. "What the hell's happening? What the hell am I doing?"

"That's kinda a long story too," Nathan said. "But basically, the Dark Dimension is taking over, you couldn't close it this time. And it's taken over you." He dove out of the way to avoid another blast.

"What did you do?" she cried.

"Why are you automatically assuming I did something?!"

"Because she - I - seem to be going after you!"

"Okay, I may have said something - that I didn't mean - in the heat of an argument, that upset you, but I don't think that's what this is all about."

"What did you say?"

"No time to explain!"

"Fine, but I won't let this go, you know."

"Oh, I know."

They now stood back-to-back, fighting together, as the team they were.

"Whoa..." Hope couldn't help but admire the way they worked together.

"Nate - DUCK!"

Nathan did as instructed, right as Nina spun around and launched a shard of her purple reality-energy over his head, striking down a shadow, it bursting into small, dark flecks.

Without another thought he kissed her deeply, his wife, here, with him. Both pulled away, breathless and smiling.

That was when she noticed the others surrounding them.

"Erik? Warren? Logan? Oh it's so good to see you all!" She wasted no time in giving them all a hug.

"Seriously?" cried Nathan.

"Come on, you've gotta admit it's nice that she's still friends with all her exes," said Hope.

"Wade, Doms!"

"Shorty!"

"Bestie!"

"X-Force!" Nina did their crossed-armed gesture.

"X-Force!" cheered Wade, mirroring the gesture back to her. "Ha ha, the whole team's back together again!"

 _Pleased as I am to have you with us, I'm afraid this is not an ideal time for a reunion._

"Charles! I've missed you!" Nina cried.

 _Hello my dear._

"He's right, bad time for a reunion," Nathan agreed. "You and Hope need to get out of here, now. Go find cover."

Nina wasn't having any of that. "And what about the others? And you? This is literally my fight, Nate-"

"Nina, if something happens to you both again under my watch, I will-"

"Nate, what are you talking about? What happened?"

That's right - of course she and Hope wouldn't know about their death, the dark future he had prevented, at the cost of his own return to their life, his own timeline, the whole reason for him being in this time in the first place. He wasn't about to explain all that now. "Please, please just-"

"Nate, don't worry about me. Who you should be worrying about is that me, younger me. If something happens to my younger self, then it will automatically affect this me. I'll worry about myself, you worry about her - younger me."

He saw her point, of course, the fragility of time.

"Fine, but - LOOK OUT!"

He jumped in front of her and Hope, throwing up his arm and activating the shield - but a moment too late. A particularly large blast from present Nina struck the family of three, sending them all flying back, landing separately.

"Hope!"

"Mom!"

She couldn't see her mom, but heard her shouting. Still shaken and disoriented, Hope shakily got to her feet, searching for any sign of her parents. Scanning the nearby area, she saw a flash of sliver - her dad's metal arm!

"Dad! Dad!" Hope scrambled over and grabbed his hand, crying out moments later.

The arm wasn't attached to his body anymore.

 _So many Nina's! Yay, the family is finally reunited! :D I've been waiting for this moment forever!_

 _Hopefully it's not all too confusing, it's finally taking shape for me!_

 _Still more surprises to come!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	28. 28

28 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: Tomorrow - Alicia Morton (Annie Soundtrack)**

Dad!" she screamed. "Dad!"

"Hope!" Her mother's voice brought her frantic attention over to where the team had gathered around something. It soon became clear this was not something, but someone.

Nina knelt over Nathan, Hope rushing to his other side. "We need to stop the bleeding!" Nina cried. The ground beneath her husband was already soaked with the red liquid coming from the arm wound.

"Here-" Wade was holding a piece of cloth and pressed it against Nathan's bloody arm, causing him to wince.

"Dad!" cried Hope. "Oh no, oh God-"

"I-I-" Nathan was trying to speak, his breathing ragged. "I-I'm sorry I couldn't do better, I'm sorry I couldn't keep you both safe. I'm sorry that I failed you again."

"Shh, stop, don't talk like that," Nina fussed.

"Dad, no-" Hope was crying now. "We all just found each other again-"

"Nathan-" Jean and Scott came and knelt by his side as well.

"I-I'm sorry," he choked out again.

Meanwhile, still beneath the ruins of the mansion with Cerebro, Charles was still attempting to speak to Present Nina, though their telepathic bond was failing. She had sent the blast which had struck Nathan down.

 _Nina, this isn't you, you know that. Whatever's making you do this, you're stronger than that._

"It's me!" she cried. "My future self, who I'm becoming. This _is_ me."

 _This darkness, it chose you Nina, because you are strong. You have always had the potential for this, and you've always fought it. You are also the only one strong enough power-wise to contain it.  
_

Still kneeling over Nathan, Nina and Hope clasped hands, Nina trying, and failing, to hold back a sob. "We need to get him out of here, to safety."

"We'll do it," said Wade, nodding to Domino. The two helped guide Nathan to his feet and supported him, trying to get him to the edge of the battlefield. He only took a few steps before he stumbled and fell.

"Nate!"

"Dad!"

Future Nina turned to face the distant figure of her younger self, who had caused all this.

"Charles, may I try?" she said, reaching into the telepathic bond.

 _Of course.  
_

"You go, we've got him," Jean assured her.

With a nod, Nina reluctantly left the injured Nathan's side and rushed over to where her younger, present conflicted self was. "I won't let you do this."

"It's better this way."

"You don't really believe that."

"I do."

"No, you don't. You're just afraid." Present Nina said nothing. "And that's okay. But you have no reason to be." With that, Future Nina reached out and placed her fingertips against her younger self's temple, transferring her some images of the future, her future, with the X-Men, X-Force, and her family.

Present Nina's mind was instantly flooded with various images, mostly including herself, and the future that awaited her, that which she was actively currently fighting. She was also instantly overwhelmed by a sense of happiness and contentment. Even if she didn't know the context of all of these future images - yet - they were good memories, that much she knew. And she didn't feel afraid either.

Future Nina lowered her hand, cutting off the connection, giving her younger self a moment to absorb what she had been shown. "You fear what the future holds for you. I understand, I've been there. But you'll figure it out. We both will."

"I-I feel so vulnerable..."

"And that's okay. And it's strong to admit that, and perfectly okay to do so."

"I-I'm just so scared."

"I know. I remember it, clearly."

"How do I stop? Being afraid of it all?"

"You learn to accept them for what they are, your powers, accept that you have as much control over them as you do and may not fully know what they are. And, as for the future, well... What happens is great. That's all I can say."

"And I'm happy?"

"Very."

"And not alone?"

"Never alone. What I've come to learn is that I didn't have to know where I came from in order to be going somewhere. I forged my own path and travelled it."

"Mom." Hope appeared at their sides. She faced Present Nina. "One thing you've taught me is that being true to yourself is the strongest thing you can be. It's difficult at times, but also totally worth it."

Future Nina nodded, very proud of her daughter. She turned back to her younger self. "Remember, you're not as strong as you think."

"No, I'm stronger."

Future Nina smiled. "Exactly. It takes a while for us to realize that, but we get there. And we have all the love and support to get there."

Present Nina was nodding. Then she looked around at all the darkness and destruction surrounding them. She looked down at her hands, both glowing with faint purple energy, and then back up at her future self.

"This isn't me. I decide."

"Don't be fooled so easily." Dark Nina was speaking to her again, her dark future potential self.

"This isn't what I want. All I can see is that I become a total bitch and I really don't want that."

"Your loss."

"My gain, I think."

"You don't understand the significance of who you are and what you can be!" Dark Nina seemed to be becoming desperate, trying to persuade her to choose the darkness, but Nina wasn't going to let herself be so easily swayed, not anymore.

"I know exactly who I am."

"Think of how lonely you are, how alone. How much you always have been. How misunderstood."

"You're right, I have been lonely. But you're also wrong, because I've never ever been alone."

"They don't understand you. You don't even understand - but you can. They never have and never will."

"Yes they do. They know me better than anyone. They're my friends, my family." She cast a glance back at them.

"They only hold you back, drag you down."

"No, they support me, hold me up. You're just using me, and my fears."

"You don't need them."

"I think I do."

"You don't-"

"Oh just shut up!" She turned back to her friends. "Wade - hit it!"

"Ooooo yeah!" Wade rubbed his hands together. "We know what this means! Oh, George Michael we _are_ gonna dance again! Let's do this!"

Present Nina turned to face her dark self. "You pissed off the wrong people, the wrong family." Her eyes flashed with purple light. "Going dark."

 _The scene of Nathan losing his arm was inspired by an image I saw of Hope cradling her father's arm on Pinterest - so sad! It might have been from the comics, or a drawing, I'm not sure but credit to the artist and thanks for the inspiration! :)_

 _And Nina's line, 'You pissed off the wrong people, the wrong family' was inspired by Lara's line, 'You messed with the wrong family' in 'Tomb Raider' 2018!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter (as always!) :)_


	29. 29

29 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Freedom!_ \- George Michael **

"The future isn't set, things change. So let's change this, shall we?"

"After you, Shorty! Let's dance!"

The X-Men and X-Force together strode forward, ready to face the darkness.

From where he sat at the edge of the battlefield with his now bandaged wounded arm, Nathan watched them, watched her. He couldn't help but smile. "That's my girl."

Purple energy swirled and blasted all around, cast by Nina, engulfing everything and absorbing the shadows. Her eyes glowed with that same purple, and it created an aura around her. She levitated into the centre of the shadows, then pounded her fist into her palm, a giant X igniting behind her, blasting apart of the darkness in one large burst.

"YES QUEEN!" shouted Wade.

"You don't want to accept your fate? Fine, your loss." Dark Future Nina was now sending a full attack towards them.

There were swirls of both pink and purple amongst the shadows as Hope fought alongside her mom. A blast of purple energy shot past her, striking down a shadow before it could strike her. Present Nina had sent the blast. She and her future daughter shared a nod and smile, and both felt a form of understanding shared between them. Maybe Nina was still hesitant to accept her future, but slowly but surely she was warming to the idea.

The teams were taking a hard hit - everyone had injuries by this point, though minor ones compared to Nathan's. Everyone had to have each other's backs.

From where she was crouched behind a large pile of rubble, Nina watched as some thin shadows approached her. They glided forward and swirled around her and moments later the cut on her side faded away.

The shadows had healed her, almost as though they had been protecting her. But that didn't make any sense - the darkness was consuming, seeking to destroy. Why would it be protecting her? Helping her?

Holding out her hand, still cautious, towards a nearby shadow, it began to gently swirl around her hand and up her arm, not causing any harm, just interacting with her. She would even go as far as say _connecting_ with her.

This made some sense: she had always had access to the Dark Dimension, the dark, powerful side of reality, buried deep within the universe itself. She had opened that dimension and let the darkness into this one, so perhaps the power she held being able to do so had helped her forge a connection with the darkness...

Maybe it wasn't the darkness itself that was harmful - sure, it was powerful, and consuming, clearly - but it was only causing harm because that was the way it was being used by her dark future self, her potential future self.

Thinking back, she herself had only ever opened the Dark Dimension when really, truly necessary, and it had always been in the battle against some evil force, she using it for the side of good, with good intentions behind it.

She had two options here with her now: Dark Future Nina, and Future Nina. Both had expressed themselves and their intentions to her. She knew where she was headed no matter which direction she chose.

It was up to her. The choice was hers to make and now she had to choose and seal her fate.

"Charles, Charles are you still there?"

 _Yes, Nina, I'm here._

"Good. I've been thinking about what you said, about me accepting the darkness, and I think you're right."

 _You do?_

"Yes. I don't like it, but I don't really see any other way."

 _Neither do I, I'm sorry._

"Don't be. You've done so much for me, so thank you."

 _My pleasure, as always._

She took a deep breath, settling on her choice. "I don't know what will happen if I do this, but if I have to choose between having the darkness destroy you all and having it destroy myself, it's an easy decision. There's no decision, really." With that she was running back into the fray.

There was no missing the implication of her words. Charles was immediately struck by fear and panic. _Nina, no - that's absolutely not what I meant!_ But the connection was gone, she had severed it. He tried to reconnect their minds, but she blocked him out. _No - NINA!_ But it was no use; she was gone.

 _No - ERIK!_ He managed to send a quick thought to Erik, but he was already too late.

By the time Erik realized what was happening, it was already happening. He couldn't stop her either. No one could, they were too late. "NINA!"

Nina had dashed to the centre of the shadows and guided them together, so they formed one giant wave of darkness, and was now standing at the edge of the cliffside, ready to take them down with her.

But before she could fall, someone caught her wrist.

It wasn't Charles who caught her, or Erik. It was Nathan.

"Nathan?"

He was struggling, but held onto her wrist tightly. "What the hell are you doing?"

"You've got to let me go."

"No fucking way. I'm not losing you again."

"I know what I have to do."

"I won't fail you again. I can't-"

"And you haven't. I'm sorry you believed that."

He was really struggling to hold on now. "No, I know that look. Don't you dare."

"Then you know me better than I thought. I'm sorry I doubted you."

"No!"

But his pleading was no use. All he could do was watch as she fell.

 _This final cliffside scene was definitely inspired by Nat's sacrifice in 'Avengers: Endgame'. And the giant X appearing behind Nina when she pounds her fist into her hand was inspired by Carol facing off with Ronan in 'Captain Marvel'! :)_

 _We're getting so close to the end! I'm excited but also sad - what a journey it's been!_

 _But there's still some story left yet! ;) Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	30. 30

30 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Insertion_ \- Hans Zimmer ( _Dark Phoenix_ Soundtrack)**

Being weakened by his injuries didn't help, and he couldn't hang on to her. She phased her wrist through his hand and fell, he only able to watch.

As she plunged downward, the shadows swarmed her, consuming her. Soon, the purple energy light she was giving off was snuffed out. The darkness engulfed her and she was gone.

"No - Mom, NO!" Hope screamed, and tried to charge forward, but Domino held her back. Hope thrashed against her hold, but it was no use.

His daughter's screams were like knives in his chest, cutting his heart to shreds.

Angel swooped down to try and catch Nina before she fell, but was quickly overwhelmed by the shadows himself and unable to reach her.

"Angel!" Kurt managed to teleport himself to his friend's aid, and get them both to safety.

But Nina was gone.

Wade was now standing over Nathan. "Nathan, come on, let me help you up."

"No-"

"Nathan, come on, give me your god damn hand."

Hesitantly, he took Wade's hand, allowing the other man to help him to his feet.

Wade put a supportive arm around him. "I'm sorry."

But Nathan barely heard him. How could he let this happen? Again?

He didn't want to turn around out of fear of what he would see - rather what he wouldn't see.

"N-Nate." Future Nina, his wife Nina, stumbled, losing her footing. Her younger self was gone, which meant she had sealed the fate of her future self as well, and that of her future daughter.

"Neen-" He wrapped her up in a near-crushing hug, the best he could with his one arm, supporting her from falling. "Oh Darling - I'm so sorry." He pulled Hope in close as well and just held them both, as tightly as he could, never wanting to let go. "No, no, oh God, please no-" The best he could, Nathan clung to them both, prepared to never let go. With the younger self of his wife dead, that meant both his wife and his daughter would soon be gone as well.

His hold around them tightened, dreading the moment he would feel them start to fade away, from him, and from existence.

He had come here to save them from such a fate, and he had only made it worse. He had changed nothing.

"Nate-"

"No, no, I can't lose you again."

"Nathan-"

"No, please, no, don't go, don't leave me-"

"Nate."

"Dad."

He pulled away slightly. Nina was looking at him, unchanged. "I'm fine - we're both fine."

Looking at them himself, he saw no sign of them departing from this reality.

But how was that possible? He stared at them in disbelief. Surely they would have faded away from existence by now - right?

But what did this mean? Could it mean-

Slowly, hesitantly almost, he turned back to the cliffside, peering over the edge.

Erik was already working to create a staircase of sorts from pieces of metal scattered about. This allowed the team to descend safely down the cliff to the base of it where Nina had fallen.

Nathan, Future Nina, and Hope led the way. As the dust cleared, they all saw her-

Nina.

Present Nina. She was lying where she had fallen, still and silent, unmoving. The shadows that had surrounded and engulfed her were gone, though black and purple crackles of energy now swirled across her skin. Her hair was no longer red and instead a deep purple.

Hope rushed forward, holding a hand above her future mother's head. "She's alive! She's alive - barely, but..." She laughed in disbelief.

"What did you do?" Nathan asked his wife.

"I-I don't know," she admitted. "But we're fine. We're here - we're alive. We're fine."

Erik now crouched beside the fallen Nina as well. "She's unconscious. We must get her some medical attention."

Hope returned to her parents' sides. Nathan pulled them both close again, this time out of relief. He pressed a kiss to Nina's head, then Hope's "Come on, Let's go home."

Turning around, however, they were reminded that they stood in the remains of the mansion.

"Oh, right..."

"It's okay." Jean stepped forward. "We've fixed it once before, we can do it again. Let's all go home."

* * *

In a joined effort between Charles, Erik, Future Nina, Hope, and Jean, they were able to piece the mansion back together piece by piece, and restore the grounds of the estate to their usual glory, as though nothing had happened.

"See, I told you the house blows up every few years," said Ellie.

Once the mansion was fully restored, everyone received the medical attention they needed. Present Nina was taken to the medical wing where she lay, still and silence, for three days.

When those few days had passed, her eyes finally fluttered open. And when they did, they were a sharp, bright purple.

"Oh god-" The first thing her new purple eyes fell upon was her older, future self in the arms of Nathan, both standing over her cot in the medical wing. "That is so weird on so many levels..."

Both chuckled. "See, you are funny," said Nathan.

"So you say. Nate, could I have a moment with myself, please?"

"Of course." Nathan left them - left her. She sat and faced her younger self.

Both Nina's just sat there, staring at each other for a long, silent moment.

"How are you feeling?" Future Nina finally asked.

"Different..."

"A good different?"

"Not sure about that yet." Another pause before she said, "What happened? What did I do?"

"You absorbed the Dark Dimension."

"So it worked, then."

"Yes. Essentially you tethered it to yourself, so it's your life force now."

Present Nina nodded distantly. "You said we'd figure the future out-" She held up her hands. "And now this?"

"We'll figure it out. We have lots of time. And we're not alone in this. It might not turn out to be as much of a curse as it seems now."

"Maybe not. So what happens now?"

"That's for you to decide."

Again, she nodded somewhat distantly. "I bet you're happy to be reunited with him."

Her future self smiled warmly. "Yes, I am, very much."

"I don't love him right now - not yet."

"And that's okay, he's not asking you to right now. He's not even in your life yet, technically."

"All this time travel really messes with things."

"It sure does." Future Nina stood. "I'll go get Charles. He wanted to see you."

A few minutes later, Charles replaced her future self at her bedside.

"You gave us all quite the scare back there," he told her.

"It seemed that the shadows were protecting me, trying to connect with me, so I had to try. But I wasn't sure what was going to happen," she admitted. "And just because I absorbed it willingly doesn't mean I'm not still afraid of it."

"Of course, and now you can focus on becoming more comfortable with it. And you have all of us here to support you." Charles reached out and placed his hand over hers. She gave his a squeeze. "Before, you were accessing the darkness within the atmosphere. Now, you have absorbed it and, from what we can tell, it has stopped spreading. You've contained it. Now, as far as we can tell, you have unlimited access to it." He sighed. "I was wrong to keep telling you to fight it. You were always meant to embrace it, it's a part of you."

"I don't fault you, Charles. Please, don't feel bad." He gave her a thankful smile. She squeezed his hand again. "I know you said I have support here, and I know I do, but I think that I should take some time away. At least until I figure this new power out and get some handle on it. I don't want to cause harm to anyone in the meantime."

"If that is what you feel is best."

She looked very torn, but determined as well, "It's one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, but yes, I do."

 _Yay, she's okay! ;) I do love a happy ending!_

 _The scene with Nina absorbing the Dark Dimension was inspired by Carol absorbing the Tesseract's energy in 'Captain Marvel'!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	31. 31

31 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _When You Love a Woman_ \- Journey**

"Stay." Nathan stood with his wife and daughter who had just alerted him to what he had been dreading: them having to leave.

Nina looked at him in understanding. "Nate, we can't, you know we can't. I want to, but we can't."

He nodding, knowing full well the truth of it as well. "I know... I just wish you could."

"So do we. But this has been an unexpected surprise."

"It has."

"And its been wonderful."

"Yeah, it sure has."

"And you'll be home with us soon."

"I'll make sure of that."

"You'd better."

He chuckled. "I'm so proud of you," he said. "Of both of you. I love you."

"We love you too."

"Oh, before you go-" Nathan removed the teddy bear from his belt and held it out to his daughter. "I believe this is yours."

She smiled. "Thanks Dad. But you keep it for now."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. Cause when you get home, six-year-old me is going to be very happy to see Mr. Cuddles again - and see you too, of course."

Nathan laughed, pulling her and her mother into one last long hug.

"See you soon, Nate," Nina assured him.

"See you. Love you."

"Love you too."

And just like that, they were gone, back to their own timeline in the distant future. But instead of feeling sad, he felt satisfied, fulfilled, whole again.

For the first time in ages, he felt happy.

* * *

Present Nina awoke from another long rest to find her future husband sitting at her bedside again, like prince charming waiting for his lady love to awaken. Only this time he was alone.

"You didn't kiss me awake, did you?"

He chuckled. "Nope, but I just might."

"Save it for the future, Future-boy." She sat up, looking around the room that was empty except for them. "Where's Hope - our daughter? And Future Me?"

"She left with you back to your own time."

"Why didn't you go with them?"

"I wanted to, but I couldn't, cause that's not my timeline. I mean, it is, just later."

"Right. But I thought you had a way to get home."

"I do, but I had to make sure you were okay here. Otherwise, I may not even have a future and home to return to."

She hadn't thought of it that way – that was truly frightening. No wonder he was so worried.

"Your arm - it's fixed," she noticed.

He twisted it. "Yeah, good as new. Hank managed to fuse it back together - guess it was a good thing it was my infected, metal arm."

"I'm so sorry for that."

"Don't be."

"I could have killed you!"

"You weren't yourself."

"No, no I guess I wasn't... Not really..." she agreed.

"So I hear you're leaving."

She nodded. "For a little while at least. I just think it's what's best right now, all things considered. Especially with this now." She held up her hands.

"You have nothing to be afraid of," he assured her.

"I hope so." She paused before posing her next question. "Did you really mean it when you said if you lose me you lose everything?"

He gave a firm nod. "Every word." He was dead serious.

"Why?"

"Cause it's true." He was dead serious.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I don't think it's that simple."

"It's not, it's complicated, but that's how I feel," he insisted.

She breathed a heavy sigh. "Wow, I don't even know what to say to that. I just don't know if I warrant being loved so much-" He stared back at her, eyebrows knit in obvious confusion. She looked at him, really looked at him. "How can you love me?" she cried, suddenly bursting into tears. "How can you love me when I don't even know who or what I am, or where I come from. When I'm obviously nothing but a bunch of broken pieces being held together by some dark force I can't really explain or control and that could take over me and cause me to snap at any moment. How can I have a daughter, who is supposed to be able to look up to me, when I don't even know myself? How can I build a life out of what I have no clue about? Maybe that's not the best foundation for building a life upon..."

"That's what this is about?" he asked, piecing everything together, it suddenly all making sense now. She nodded. "Oh Neen – I'm sorry, I had no idea you felt that way."

All her withdrawn behavior and denial of their future hadn't been about him after all - it had been because she was doubting herself.

"I guess in your timeline I never had the honour of meeting you beforehand and questioning it all. And I guess I didn't have these new powers either. But now all that has changed."

"This changes nothing. Look how far you've come when you haven't even known who or what you are."

"But will I ever truly know? I'm wondering now if that's better."

"You're Nina Nova, Night Witch, one of the founders of the X-Men. Member of the X-Men and X-Force. My wife, the mother of our child, the love of my life."

"You're really pushing that one hard, huh?"

"It's true."

Maybe she could begin to see what her future self saw in this guy. "And I guess all that also means I leave this place, where I've always been, always belonged. But I guess I'm doing that anyway now. Still, the though terrifies me."

"Of course, you're leaving your home." He nodded in understanding. "I can tell you miss it here, in the future. You want Hope to come here, but think she's still too young. At first, I wasn't so sure. My parents raved about this place, so did you. But it's all right. Lots of good work being done here."

She nodded. "Yes, there is." She looked at him again, really looked at him. "I'm sorry I doubted you."

"Naw, it's okay. I'll admit I was being a bit of an ass."

She chuckled, he laughing a little too. "A bit, yes. Thank you, Nathan."

"For what?"

"For reassuring me that everything's going to work out, that it's all going to be okay."

He smiled. "Anytime."

 _Aw, they're coming to more of an understanding :)_

 _We're nearing the end now, but still some chapters left to come! And there will be more sweet moments between Nina and Nathan too! ;)_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	32. 32

32 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Faithfully_ \- Journey**

She was saying goodbye. To it all, to everyone. For the first time in decades, she was leaving the School for the Gifted.

The school had been her home since 1962.

After lingering in her room, taking a last look, she walked one last time down the grand staircase, pausing before the wall of photographs and stopping to look at one in particular. The one from that day in 1962, the original X-Men. Her family, her friends.

Which had only grown to all that it was now. And it was wonderful, and she was so proud of all that it had become. Charles's vision was thriving. All the more difficult to say goodbye to.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was met by a surprise. "Oh - now I'm definitely going to cry..."

Everyone had gathered at the base of the stairs in a grand send-off.

First it was Hank, then Kurt, Colossus, Ellie, Yukio, Russell, and Storm. She gave everyone a hug goodbye.

Then was her winged ex-boyfriend. "Bye Angel, it's good to have you back."

"Bye Nina. And yeah, maybe I'll stick around for a while."

"Bye, Ms. Nova. Thanks for anything."

"Jean, Scott, it would seem as though we become family in the future. You might start calling me 'Nina'."

"Okay, that's going to take some getting used to for sure," said Scott. She hugged them both as well.

"Erik..."

"Goodbye, Darling. I will miss you."

"I'll miss you too." She kissed his cheek.

"Genosha is always open to you - if you ever grow tired of this dusty old house. Or even if you don't."

"I don't think I will ever grow tired of it, but thank you, I will definitely come visit. And you might come visit us here more often. You're always welcome here too."

"Perhaps."

"Bye Doms!"

"Bye Bestie! Good luck out there!"

"Thanks, I'll need it."

"Naw, you won't. You've got this!"

"Thanks."

As soon as she faced Wade, she could tell he wasn't himself. "Wade, are you - crying?"

Instead of answering, he gave a loud sob and dropped down to his knees to hug her around the middle, another one of his jokes about her height. He was definitely crying beneath his mask. "Oh Shorty - I'm really gonna miss you!"

"I'll miss you too. Thank you for everything, and good luck with X-Force. Say goodbye to Vanessa for me, and best wishes for you both and your baby."

"I will, thank you. Don't do anything I wouldn't do while you're gone."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"X-Force will miss you."

She crossed her arms in the X gesture. "X-Force."

He did the same. "X-Force."

Charles was after Wade. For a long moment neither said anything. Oh Charles, her closest friend and first love.

"Goodbye, Charles. Thank you for everything."

"Goodbye, my dear. You'll always have a place here."

"Thank you, I know." She gave him a long, lingering hug and they kissed each other's cheeks.

And finally-

Nathan was the last one.

He gave her a sad smile. "I keep having to say goodbye to you."

"Not forever though."

"That's true. Feels like it, though."

"You've got the fixed device, you'll be home soon," she assured him, just as her future self had. "I know you don't want to give too much away about the future-"

"I think we're already past that."

"True. I know you probably would have mentioned this already but, do I ever figure it out, what I am?"

"Not so far, but that could change. Just don't ever change, okay? You're gonna be fine, trust me."

She nodded. "Okay, Future-boy. Sounds like I'll have lots of time to figure it all out." _Before you come along._ "I guess I'll see you around, Nathan."

"Yeah, hope so."

"We will."

"Yeah, about that. Listen, there's a future waiting for you, with us. But, like you said, the future's not set. So, if you decide that your future is somewhere else – with someone else-" He forced out the painful words. "-Don't feel obliged to stick with our future just cause you know about it. I want you to be happy."

She smiled. "That's how I know. That's why I'm going to ask Charles to erase my memories of you."

"Oh..." His face fell.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to alarm you. I just mean that I want it to be a surprise, don't want any previous knowledge I have to influence those future events. That being said, can I have a little peek? I saw my side of the memories, I'd like to see yours too. If you'll let me."

"Just a peek."

She reached out and placed her finger tips against his head, tapping into his memories. He reached out and held her hand there against his temple.

Almost instantly, her mind was filled with images.

Many she recognized from when her future self had shown her her own side of these memories, and she was glad to now see them from his side too.

"Wow..." she breathed.

"Yeah?"

"It's... _Beautiful_." She felt a tear trickle down her cheek.

He smiled. "I'm glad you think so. I think so too. When I look at you I see the woman I love. Doesn't matter where or when. Where ever you and Hope are, that's my home. I wasn't lying when I said you two were the only thing that made it a home. Through this, I've had the pleasure of falling in love with you all over again."

She chuckled, his sweet, genuine words not helping with her teary eyes. "Wow. You really are romantic."

He smiled. "Just you wait."

"Hmm, I'm really curious now. But no more spoilers, Future-boy."

They stood staring and smiling at each other before their moment was broken-

Wade had begun playing the _Titanic_ theme in the background.

"Really?" said Nina.

"Shh, stop, you're ruining this precious moment." He placed a hand over his heart. "Just listen."

"Jesus," sighed Nathan, shaking his head.

Nina just rolled her eyes. "Well, on that note, goodbye."

She paused in the entry hall for a moment on her way passing through before walking out the grand front doors, continuing down the driveway and to the front gates. She paused outside the gates, turning to take one final look at her home. This may be goodbye for now, but not forever.

She gave a teary-eyed smile and whispered, "Thank you."

 _SO excited for the next chapter - got a big surprise for you all! ;)_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :)_


	33. 33

33 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _I_ _f I Could Turn Back Time_ \- Cher**

"You sure we can't persuade you to stay?"

Nathan shook his head. "Nope. Not a chance."

It felt surreal - he was actually going home. He was all packed up and ready to go - all he needed to do was turn the time-travel device and he would be-

Home.

Home, with Nina and Hope. _Home_. He couldn't believe it.

"Well, if we can't, then I think I know something that might..." Wade and Domino exchanged an amused glance.

"What are you two grinning about?"

"We left you a little present upstairs."

"Jesus..."

"Not sure what you're thinking, but my mind is running wild with possibilities!" Beneath his mask, Wade wore an amused grin. "Go on, go, go! Go see for yourself!"

Still unsure, Nathan slowly made his way up the grand staircase while Wade and Domino fist-bumped behind him.

From the top of the stairs he heard the voice of the professor down the hall. "It's so good to have you back."

"It's so good to be back. It's been far too long." A second voice – Nina's. This made him stop. But that made no sense, she had just left yesterday, she wouldn't be back this soon.

"What do you think?" Nina asked.

"I like it!" A little girl's voice answered, one he knew just as well.

"Your mother can give you the grand V.I.P. tour," Charles said.

"What's V.I.P.?" the girl asked, sounding adorably confused.

"Very Important Person."

"That's me?!"

"That's you!"

Nathan came around the corner then. Everything froze.

They were bathed in a warm wash of sunlight coming through the stained glass window at the end of the hall. The light made them appear angelic, and so Nathan wondered if he was just imagining things.

But then they turned and looked right at him, their expressions changing to shock and awe and disbelief to surely match his own.

Nina and Hope. _His_ Nina and Hope. His wife and daughter.

There was a long, lingering moment of shocked silence before-

"DADDY!"

"Hope? Hope!"

It was Hope, his Hope, the one he remembered from his own timeline. His six-year-old daughter.

Next thing he knew she was sprinting down the hall. He knelt down just in time as she jumped into his open arms, her arms flying around his neck. She snuggled her face into his shoulder while he buried his face in her hair.

Could this really be happening? His daughter here in his arms?

"You're here too! I missed you so much!"

Nathan couldn't formulate any words, so he just held her tighter.

"Mummy!" Hope pulled away and called over her shoulder. "Look, look! Daddy's here too! We're all here!"

And his wife-

Nathan rose to his feet, staring down the hall. Nina stood next to Charles, gripping his shoulder tightly. She had begun to cry.

"Mummy, why are you crying? Aren't you happy?" Hope asked, now looking concerned.

"Yes!" Nina gave a mix between a laugh and a sob. "Oh, yes, of course I am. These are happy tears. I just can't believe it..." Her eyes didn't leave her husband. "N-Nate?" Her voice was barely a whisper, barely audible.

"Hey, Neen."

They stared at each other for a few long moments. Time slowed and then seemed to stop altogether.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

They chuckled as their words overlapped.

"Are you really here?" They were standing close enough now that he reached out and stroked her hair as though to check to see if she were real.

"Are _you_ really here?" She placed her hands on his chest.

"Oh, my gawd! Yes! Just kiss already!" They were snapped from their trance by Wade's voice, making them jump. "We didn't reunite you two just so you could stand there and stare all moon-eyed at each other."

" _You_ did this?" cried Nathan.

"Nina and I devised a plan before she left," Charles explained, wheeling himself over to them. "She would swap places with you, Nina, staying in the future while she works to control her newfound powers, while you and Hope could come here to this time and be with Nathan. Wade helped ensure everything - and everyone - was in place."

"I seem to recall you threatening me should I not clean up the mess I made," Wade reminded Nathan. "Naw, you did me a favour, so here's my thank you."

Nathan surprised everyone by pulling Wade close in a hug.

"Aww, I always knew you were a hugger!" Wade wrapped his arms around the super-soldier in return.

"Okay, that's enough." The hug didn't last long.

Nathan and Nina turned back to each other, beaming. She pressed her hands over her mouth to stifle another happy sob. "You're here."

"I'm here."

"You're really here."

"I am," he assured her.

"I just can't believe it!"

"Me neither!"

She burst into tears and cried into his shoulder. "I'm here, Baby, I'm here," he soothed, holding her tightly. She took his face in her hands, bringing it down to her own and kissing him deeply.

"That's gonna take some getting used to," Wade remarked to Doms as they watched the two snogging.

"Yeah," she agreed.

Hope gagged. "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

"I agree," said Wade.

Nina and Nathan only laughed.

Suddenly, Hope gasped. "Mr. Cuddles! There you are! Why did you have him?" she asked her dad.

Nathan removed the teddy bear from his belt and held it out to her. "I brought him along for good luck."

"Did it work?"

"Yes, it did. We're together again."

She grinned, hugging the bear.

"Yes, our family's back together again," Nina said. "For good."

Nina, Nathan, Wade, and Domino sat in the living room that evening. Hope was already in bed, exhausted after the exciting day.

Nina and Nathan sat close together on the couch, practically in each other's laps, smiling at each other lovingly.

"Are you two telepathically whispering dirty things to each other?" asked Wade.

"Maybe. Or maybe we're talking shit about you," Nina replied.

"Either way, I approve. Well, I think we should call it a night." He clapped his hands and stood. "It's been an exciting day! Besides, you two can barely keep your hands off each other." He nodded to the reunited couple, both who raised their hands in surrender. "Go on, go make up for lost time. Go on, shoo." He made a shooing gesture with his hand.

They didn't need any more encouragement. As soon as they were upstairs, they wasted no time in hurrying to Nathan's room and jumping into bed.

"Finally, we're alone," sighed Nathan. "I'm all yours."

She grinned back. "And I'm all yours."

He cupped her face in his metal hand. "I've missed every part of our life together."

"Oh, Nate – come here." She drew him close.

Just like Wade said, time to make up for lost time.

* * *

"Nate, I'm pregnant."

A few weeks later, Nina had some big news to share with her husband.

"Oh - wow..."

"Yeah..."

"Well, I guess it's really not _that_ surprising," he said with a smirk, considering they had barely left their room.

"Not really." She chuckled. "I know it's very soon after everything, but we were discussing it before you left, having more kids."

"Yeah, no, you're right. I've felt so lost for so long without you both and now, by some miracle it seems, you're here again. I don't want to miss another moment."

* * *

"Everyone shut up! Wade Jr. is sleeping!" shushed Wade.

They welcomed their son nine months later. Hope was absolutely thrilled to be a big sister and to have a little brother.

"Never thought I'd be a grandparent in my thirties," remarked Scott.

"We can thank time-travel for that," agreed Jean.

"We've come up with a name for him..." The proud parents shared a smile. "Alex. Alex Summers Jr."

"What do you think?" Nathan asked Scott.

It was clear Scott was tearing up under his visor. "I think it's great."

"What?! Are you kidding me?! You decided to name him after some dude they killed off halfway through _Apocalypse_?!" Wade was not having any of it.

"It just seemed right."

There was a scoff from the masked merc. "Bullshit."

"Wade! Not in front of the baby!" cried Nina.

"Well we all know Wade Jr.'s first word would be a profanity, or multiple. First words."

"Aww, he fell right asleep," said Doms, who was currently holding baby Alex. "You've got luck on your side, young man."

"We've all got luck on our side," said Nina.

"We sure do." Nathan agreed. Husband and wife shared a long kiss.

 _Well, what did you think of the surprise? ;) Planned that a long time ago!_

 _This chapter jumps around a little, but hopefully it's okay! So much time-jumping in this story!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	34. 34

34 _._

 _The Present_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Don't Stop Me Now -_ Queen**

A year after she left, Nina returned to the mansion.

"My dear, you're back! Welcome home!" Charles declared, wheeling through the crowd of excited children who had also come to welcome Ms. Nova back.

She smiled warmly and leaned down to give him a hug. "Hello Charles."

"How are you?"

"Really good, actually," she informed him with a smile.

A smile which he returned. "I'm glad. Welcome home, Nina."

She squeezed his hand. "Thank you."

She joined him in his study where they had tea while they caught up on the last year.

"And, our scheme worked then?" she asked him.

"Oh, wonderfully, yes. You were all perfectly surprised. You all just left, actually. Along with your new baby boy. Three months old."

"Wow, we didn't waste any time then, it would seem. Apparently we were talking about more family." Nina smiled. "What did we name him? Wait, don't tell me, too many spoilers." She chuckled. "Well, I'm glad we're all home now where we belong."

"Yes." Charles paused. "And you're sure you want me to erase it all?"

"Yes. I don't want any previous knowledge there to influence it and maybe cause it not to happen. It's difficult, but I think it's best."

"I understand." He reached out. Then he paused, fingers hovering above her temple. "Nervous?"

"Nervous excited."

He smiled before touching his fingertips to her head. She felt his presence in her mind, and then, nothing.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Fine."

"So Nina, about Nathan..."

She looked at him quizzically. "Who's Nathan?"

Charles poured her some more tea. "Never mind."

Her question would remain unanswered for thirty-five years.

* * *

 _The Future_

 _Thirty-five Years Later_

"You guys really don't need to come with me." Nathan still couldn't believe his parents had insisted on joining him, a man of over thirty years old, when he arrived at the mansion, like they were proud parents dropping him off at school for the first time.

"We know." Jean smiled. "But we want to. And we want to see everyone again."

Nathan sighed. "Fine."

"Aw, don't worry, we won't embarrass you, Nate-o!" said Scott, throwing an arm around his son's shoulders.

"You already are."

"Ah, well if it isn't the Summers family." The professor greeted them in the entry hall.

"Hello Professor." Both Jean and Scott gave him a hug.

"Hello Jean and Scott, wonderful to see you again. And this must be Nathan." Xavier turned to him.

"Yeah, that's me." Nathan shook the professor's hand.

"Lovely to have you, I think you will be a wonderful addition to our staff."

"Thanks, hope so."

"Look, it's him!" cried Wade from off to the side where he and Domino stood, eavesdropping.

"Shhh!" Domino nudged him. "Quiet or he'll hear you! Remember, he doesn't know us yet."

"We couldn't resist coming back and visiting," Jean said.

"Well I'm very glad you did. And you've come at a good time," Charles told them. "Nina was away but she should be back at any moment. She'll love to see you." He, Jean, and Scott exchanged a knowing glance.

"Who?" said Nathan.

 _Having a good time, having a good time!_

 _I'm a shooting star, leaping thorough the sky_

 _Like a tiger, defying the laws of gravity!_

 _I'm a racing car, passing by like Lady Godiva_

 _I'm gonna go, go go,_

 _There's no stopping me!_

With the radio blasting and her hair blowing behind her beneath her helmet, Nina drove her motorcycle up the road, turning onto the main drive of the school. There, she parked it and removed her helmet, blowing her now messy hair out of her eyes before striding through the front doors.

"Ms. Nova's back!" screamed one child, summoning a bunch of other students to the entry hall.

"Ms. Nova! Ms. Nova!"

"Hello everyone!"

"We missed you!"

"I missed you too! Did you grow?" she asked one child. "I think you're taller than before I left."

"Ms. Nova! I learned how to summon lightning! Want to see?"

"I would love to see!"

"Always a large welcome party," Charles chuckled.

"Yes, it's sweet. Oh my gosh - Jean, Scott!" Nina cried, noticing her friends standing there with Charles. She hugged them both. "Oh it's so great to see you! We've missed you! How is everything? How's your son?"

"All grown up." Jean nodded to the awkward-looking man standing there with them.

Nina turned to face him, removing her sunglasses as she did so, revealing deep purple, enchanting eyes. Her hair was layers of its natural red and dyed deep purple to match her eyes. "Oh wow, grown up indeed! Hi, I'm Nina. You probably don't remember me."

"Nathan. Afraid not, I would definitely remember you."

She chuckled and held out her hand to shake. He hesitated with his metal arm but she only nodded in encouragement. They shook hands, lingering on holding each other's hand.

"It's happening!" squealed Wade. Doms nudged him again. "This is it!"

"I held you when you were just a baby," Nina told him. "Sorry, that probably sounds super weird, but it's true."

"You like hundreds of years old or something?" he asked.

"Try millennia."

His eyes widened. "Well, you look great."

"For such an old woman? Thank you," she laughed. "Not so bad yourself. So, are you just visiting?"

"They are." Nathan nodded to his parents. "I'm staying on as a trainer."

"Oh that's wonderful! I love working here, it's great! Where were you working before?"

"The future."

"Oh wow - sounds like an interesting story! I would love to hear it - once I've had a shower. I'm really sweaty so I'm going to go wash up and then I'll help Charles get you settled. Nice to meet you, Nathan. See you soon."

"Yeah, you too - Nina." She was still within hearing distance when he breathed, "Wow..."

Smiling, she passed by Wade and Doms on her way out of the hall. She raised her eyebrows. "Well, no one ever told me that Jean and Scott's son was such a hottie."

"You think I should try recruiting him for X-Force?" said Wade.

"Please do."

"Wow, that sure worked out well," Wade remarked as she left. "It's almost like they planned that..."

 _Did you say the words to the song in Freddie's voice? ;) Even better, did you sing them?!_

 _Haha, Charles, Jean, and Scott doing some major matchmaking through the years ;) I imagine Nina's eyes to look like the Skrull's eyes in 'Captain Marvel'! :)_

They've met for real this time, so onto their future together!

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	35. 35

35 _._

 _The Future_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) -_ Whitney Houston**

 _"Oh, I wanna dance with somebody,_

 _I wanna feel the heat with somebody,_

 _Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody,_

 _With somebody who loves me!"_

Phone in hand, headphones on, Nina stood in the hall singing and grooving to the music, her usual morning routine.

Nathan smiled as he watched her. He had been heading down to the kitchen for breakfast when he found her jamming out in the hall. He admired her confidence.

" _Yeah, I wanna dance_ \- oh, hi Nathan!" Nina stopped mid-lyric and mid-dance when she saw him standing there. "Sorry, am I in your way?"

"No, not at all. No worries."

"Singing and dancing always puts me in a good mood," she said, starting up her dance again.

"So I see."

"Maybe one of these days I'll get you to dance with me."

He chuckled. "Maybe."

"I'm serious, we'll be dancing together in no time!"

"Is that a challenge?"

She winked. "Maybe."

* * *

It had been several months since Nathan had arrived at the mansion and he was now all settled in. After much nagging, Wade had finally gotten him to join X-Force, something he was still uncertain about.

It was clear right from the beginning that he and Nina were sweet on each other, smitten from the very start, and now, as time passed, the two were constantly together, flirting madly.

The mansion pretty much emptied out on Friday nights. Many students went home for the weekend to visit family, while others went to the mall, movies, or downtown for a fun Friday night. Lots of the older students even arranged weekend camping trips.

The school was very quiet this particular Friday night when Nina made her way up to Nathan's room. She guessed he had locked himself away again and, she not having any plans herself, was going to suggest they do something together - dance maybe?

She knocked on his door and peeked inside when he called, "Come in."

"Hi, Nathan. It's me. Happy Friday! I was thinking – oh-" She broke off when she saw that he was shirtless. _Very_ shirtless.

All ideas of what she could suggest they do – watch an old movie, go for a drive, go for a walk, dance – fled from her thoughts as her eyes roamed his bare half-human, half-robotic upper body. Wow. Really wow.

"Oh, hey Nina." By the looks of things, he had been working on his weapons, an array of parts and pieces spread out across his desk. "I thought you might have been busy tonight."

"Nope, no plans. I was actually coming to see if you were busy. Which I guess you are."

"Naw, just picking away at this." He was reaching for a hoodie.

"Are you embarrassed?" she asked, with such suddenness it surprised her as much as him. His body language had changed – he seemed more withdrawn, as though he were shying away from her. He had turned his back to her.

His hand paused in reaching for the piece of clothing. He sighed.

That was enough of an answer, and an obvious one at that. "Nathan, you have nothing to be embarrassed about," she assured him. _Just look at you!_ She blushed at her own thoughts.

"Maybe not." He sighed again. "It's just, most people's mutations are internal, that is, you can't see them until they use them. Whereas mine's very visible."

"I understand." She reached out. "May I?"

"Yeah." He reached his arm towards her, hoping his want for contact between them was not too obvious.

The wonder and curiosity on her face was adorable as she approached him. Nathan felt his breath catch when she touched him, even when her fingertips barely brushed him. Her touch was light and warm and very near overpowering. It took every ounce of him to not reach out and hold her hand against his chest. He knew she could feel his heartbeat thundering.

She had seen the evolution of much technology over the years, over the decades, but this was something else. "Wow," she breathed. "You're – _fascinating_." She breathed the word. And she was completely serious.

He chuckled. "You're the first and only person to call me that."

"Well, I'm honoured. Truly." She moved her fingers to his arm. "So, you can feel this, right?"

"Yeah."

"This?" She reached up to the metal on his chest, curving around to the back of his neck.

"Yeah."

Her fingers lingered there a moment. Her voice was surprisingly steady when she spoke next. "And how about this?"

Next thing he knew, she was rising on her tip-toes and kissing him.

Her touch had been intoxicating, and now her kiss was that and so much more. It took a moment for his brain to register what was happening and when it did, he cupped her face in his hands and eagerly deepened the kiss.

One hand still on her cheek, his other arm went around her waist to hold her to him. Then it scooped her up to lift her into his arms. Her legs went around his waist.

He found himself staggering backward, falling down to sit on the edge of the bed, she now sitting in his lap, kneeling on the bed.

They broke the kiss, but their faces remained close. Nina noticed his mechanical eye seemed to glow brighter, but that may have just been her imagination.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said once they had caught their breath some.

He gave a deep, low chuckle and smiled. Then she realized that was it – his eye seemed brighter when he smiled. "Yes. That was smooth, Nova. Very smooth."

"It was, wasn't it?" She chuckled too and then they were kissing again.

"I love you," she whispered against his lips.

Nathan's heart jumped at her words and they caused him to draw back and look at her. He hadn't wanted to break their kiss, but had been so surprised. " _What_?"

"I love you."

"Really?"

"Yes..." Now she was looking at him, confused.

He breathed a heavy sigh and chuckled. "Well that's a relief."

"A relief?"

"Cause I love you too."

"And you were worried I didn't feel the same?"

"Didn't think you would love me back."

She scoffed and nearly snorted with laugher. "Nathan, I just called you fascinating! And I just kissed you, didn't I?"

Again, he chuckled. "Yes, yes you did."

Soon they were laying across his bed facing each other, legs entangled as they heatedly kissed, trying to press against each other more and more.

She began to remove her shirt – her own actions surprised her a little. Usually, she wouldn't move this quickly, but they had just taken a big step, and she felt ready.

"Nate-" She broke their kiss. "I'm – I'm nervous..."

"We don't have to continue."

"I know, but I want to. I want this with you. It's just – well, you know how unpredictable my powers can be. I don't want something bad to happen, or to hurt you by accident."

He looked down at his metal arm. "I don't want to hurt you either."

"I trust you."

"And I trust you."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They both chuckled, in agreement.

"I don't have any protection though," he said.

"I do."

"You do?"

"Yeah, Wade gave me a box of condoms."

"What the- _why?_ "

She giggled at his obvious bewilderment. "It was around the time we started to become close. He gave them to me saying 'just in case'. I took it as a joke but kept them. Looks like he was prepared for this."

"Yeah. I might even have to thank him."

"Me too. I haven't had any use for them – until now. They're in my room."

"Then let's go." She giggled as he scooped her up in his arms and dashed down the hall to her room, where she went digging in her closet for the box of condoms she had shoved away, thinking she wouldn't have any use for them.

Well tonight, they would definitely make use of them.

 _Ooooo... ;) Haha! I'm so happy to finally be writing Nina and Nate happy together!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	36. 36

36 _._

 _The Future_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Can't Help Falling in Love_ \- Elvis Presley**

Once in bed, they wasted no time. He kissed down her neck and along her arms and each of her fingers one by one. She in turn kissed his metal hand to reassure him that she wasn't worried, and that he shouldn't be worried either.

Both were still nervous, but it was time to set those worries aside and trust in themselves and each other.

He kissed lower, down her chest and over her stomach.

"Fuck, Nate," she breathed.

Her hand slapped over her mouth as soon as she realized what she had said, while he pulled back, smirking. "Did I just get Nina Nova to use profanity?"

She smacked his arm. "Stop smirking!"

He laughed. "God, I love you."

"I love you too. Now, where were we?"

* * *

Meanwhile, down in the library, Wade was lounging on the sofa. He was lazily flipping through the channels on TV when purple energy began to swirl around the room. Okay, sure, he was high, but not that high. The energy looked like that cast by Nina when she was using her powers.

Peeking out into the hallway, he saw the energy out there too. "Shorty?"

Suddenly, the energy brightened and the whole house shook, but only for a brief moment. This had happened before - when Apocalypse had awoken in the '80s, when Cable had traveled to the past and Nina had seen the vision of her death, when the timeline and reality was disturbed.

Wade sprinted up the stairs. "Shorty! Oh no, what futuristic vision did you see this time?! Wait, don't tell me: Who bought the X-men film rights this time?"

As soon as he reached her room he began pounding on the door, until it opened just a crack to reveal a flushed, messy-haired Nina, who was just tying on a bathrobe.

"Oh, Wade, hi..."

"What happened?! What did you see?!" he practically yelled, startling her.

"I'm sorry?"

"Your vision, what did you see?!"

"My vision? Oh! Oh, no, everything's fine here. There was no dark, futuristic vision. Thank you for your concern though. Good night-" She tried to shut the door and shut him out, but he blocked it with a hand, the eyes of his mask narrowed.

"Why do I sense some B-S?"

"B-S?"

"Bullshit."

She cleared her throat. "Nothing. Like I said, everything's fine-" A framed painting on her wall fell with a _crash!_ to the floor, startling her and causing her to jump and bump the door, which swung open a little further - revealing a very shirtless and equally flushed and messy-haired Nathan Summers.

Wade gave one of his loud gasps, putting his hands on his cheeks, and his head whipped back and forth between the two as Nathan came up behind her. Nina cringed.

"You, and you-" Wade pointed a finger at them. Then he burst out laughing. "You mean that wasn't even from a futuristic vision, but because you were - Oh! I'll have what she's having!" Nathan growled and stepped forward defensively. "Whoa, hey, it's from a movie! Chill, Lover-boy."

"Don't call me that."

"You sure, cause it sure seems like you were lovin', if you know what I mean!"

"Get out," growled Nathan.

"Yikes, you seem pretty grumpy for a guy who just did it with the woman he's been crushing on for months."

"Cause you ruined our moment!"

"He didn't _ruin_ anything. He was just checking to make sure everything was all right. Which it is." Nina placed a hand on Nathan's chest to hold him back from attacking Wade. "He thought something was wrong."

"Which it obviously isn't!"

She turned back to Wade. "But you did interrupt a private moment."

"Yeah, I can see that now. A _very_ private moment."

"What are you even doing here on a Friday night?"

"Cause I know the place empties out, thought I might have this big-ass house to myself – evidently you two thought the same." He clasped his hands behind his back in mock innocence, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. "Well, I'm glad those condoms I gave you are being put to good use! I'll leave you to it. And if you need, I've got a whole other box of unopened condoms in my room, amongst other things, in case you're feeling adventurous-" He was cut off when she slammed and locked the door in his face, causing him to laugh again.

"Oh, this is mortifying..." Of course, of all the people who could have caught them... She buried her flushed face in her hands, flushed more now from embarrassment than from her and Nathan's romantic endeavours.

"We've got nothing to be embarrassed about."

"I guess he had to find out sometime. Still, he's never going to let us forget this, you know."

"Good, cause I don't want to forget it." Nathan's arms went around her middle.

She giggled. "Me neither." Then she added, more seriously. "But, do you think that'll happen every time?"

He raised his eyebrows and then leaned down so that his lips were right beside her ear and whispered huskily, "We'll make sure of it."

"Nathan! I could seriously screw up reality!" She playfully smacked his arm but snuggled into his embrace.

He chuckled and nuzzled her neck, placing some kisses there. "So..."

"So," she giggled.

"Since we were so rudely interrupted..."

"Yes, we should remedy that." She turned to face him, and her arms went around his neck and her legs around his waist as he lifted her into his arms, like how they had started earlier. Her back pressed against the door as they began to kiss.

"I'm still here, ya know..." Wade's voice from out in the hall broke their kiss. Nathan looked ready to kill, but Nina only pounded the door with her fist to silence the merc.

They heard Wade start laughing, and that laugh gradually fade as he headed down the hall and finally left them in peace once again.

Once he was gone, they were more than happy to resume.

 _Haha, Wade being Wade, as usual! ;) Now he'll have even more to tease Nina and Nate about!_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :)_


	37. 37

37 _._

 _The Future_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Be Good to Yourself_ \- Journey **

"Hey Nathan." Nathan answered the knock at his room door to find a very chipper Nina standing there, smiling widely. She was always a morning person.

"Hey Nina. How are you?"

"Good thanks! You?"

"Fine, thanks."

"I was wondering if you want to f-"

 _BEEP!_

Both jumped at the sudden loud beeping noise, turning to see that the source of it had been Wade, who was standing a ways down the hall holding up a button that beeped when he pressed it.

She ignored the merc and tried again. "Want to f-"

 _BEEP!_

Again, she was cut off by the beeping as Wade pressed the button once more.

"Want to-"

 _BEEP!_

She was cut off yet again, though this time even sooner.

"Fight! I was going to say 'fight', Wade!"

"Were you?" She just knew that he was raising his eyebrows and wiggling them suggestively beneath his mask.

"Yes!"

He began repeatedly pressing the button.

 _BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

She turned back to Nathan, holding up a finger. "Give me a hot second, will you?" With that, she took off and chased Wade down the hall. "Wade Wilson!"

 _BEEP!_

"You get back here right now!"

 _BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

"Stop being weird! Give me that!"

Nina managed to apprehend the now laughing Wade and confiscated the button. She came back to Nathan's door, smiling. "I'm back. Sorry about that, Wade was being a little shit."

"As usual."

"Yes. Now, what I was trying to say is that I was wondering if you wanted to train together?"

Nathan agreed and Nina left him to change into his workout attire. Once dressed and ready he came and joined her in the school's training facility.

"Ready to get your ass kicked?" Nina grinned as they faced each other on the mat, both getting into a fighting stance.

"Are you ready to get yours kicked?"

"We'll see about that, Future-boy. Powers or no powers?" She smiled, holding up a hand, the black and purple energy of her reality powers dancing around her fingers as though for emphasis.

"No powers."

"Fine, you're no fun though."

He smirked. "We'll see."

"Whoa!" Minutes later, Nina hit the mat, landing hard.

Nathan chuckled, staring down at her. "Having fun yet?"

"Are you?" She jumped up, back on her feet in seconds. "I slipped!"

"Cause I knocked you down."

"Pretty sure those were not at all related." She blew the fringes of her hair out of her eyes in her signature gesture.

"Well I think you're distracted." He smirked.

"Oh yeah?" She smirked back. "Well, I could honestly say the same about you."

They regained their fighting stance and faced each other again. Then they proceeded to throw some more punches and kicks at each other.

"So, tell me," she said, ducking away from his swing. "What exactly did they teach you in future super-soldier training?"

"Always be alert and diligent. Always complete your mission, always follow it through. If they say no survivors, no survivors."

"Sounds dark."

"Trust me, you have no idea."

"So basically they rid you of any happiness? No wonder you're so grumpy all the time."

"And, most important of all: don't let anything distract you."

"Hmm, well, hate to break this to you Summers, but you've already failed that."

"Have I?" He twisted her arm around, making her fall to her knees.

"Uh huh." Energy coated her arm, setting it free and she got back to her feet, facing him.

"Hey, I thought we said no powers," he pretended to scold.

She only grinned. "Just keeping things interesting. Still having fun?" She smirked, giving a little snort of laughter. He shoved her playfully and the fight resumed.

 _BLAST!_

She gasped when the blast of black and purple energy shot from her fist and created a flash. The energy struck him - sending him flying back to the opposite end of the training room, landing on the floor hard. That had not been what she was intending! That was only proof that she was distracted in his presence, enough so that he caused her to lose control of her powers briefly. Oops...

"Nathan! I'm so sorry! I swear I didn't do that on purpose!" She rushed across the room to his side, kneeling beside the groaning super-soldier.

His groans quickly turned into a chuckle. "We said no powers."

"That was an accident, I swear.

He continued to smile. "Sure it was."

She returned the smile. "What can I say? I was distracted. And so were you."

He didn't argue because she was exactly right - he was distracted. By _her_.

She helped him to his feet. "Well, thanks Nathan. This was fun. We'll have to do it again soon. Maybe next time you'll actually put up a fight."

"Oh, so that's how it is, huh?"

"Oh, that's how it is. See you later, Future-boy." With that, she gave a wink and left the room, leaving Nathan standing there in the middle of the mat, blinking after her.

Yup, there was no denying it: the immortal witch and the future super-soldier were definitely head-over-heels for each other.

And the future was looking bright for both of them.

 _Here we see this Nina being more confident in herself and in her powers :)_

 _I think this chapter should have come before the last two, before Nina and Nathan got together, but I only just remembered that I wanted to include this scene, which mirrors the earlier training scene between them, the then future and the now future! And I wanted some more flirty Nina and Nate ;)_

 _This was inspired by the fight training scene at the start of 'Captain Marvel' between Carol and Yon-Rogg, only more flirty! ;) And the 'oh that's how it is' line was inspired by the similar exchange between Steve and Sam at the start of 'The Winter Soldier' (which is still my favourite Marvel movie!)_

 _Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) The end is near now!_


	38. 38

38 _._

 _The Future_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _Coda_ \- Hans Zimmer ( _Dark Phoenix_ Soundtrack)**

"You know, in all the years the school has been open, I'm surprised we've never held a wedding here before."

Nina descended down the grand staircase in her wedding gown - short-sleeved with the base of the dress dyed her signature deep purple, to match that of the purple streaks in her hair, tied back into a braid over her shoulder.

Charles smiled from where he sat at the base of the staircase, awaiting her. "Yes, I agree. It's about time we changed that, and I'm glad that you are."

"My pleasure. Thank you, for doing all this." Charles would be walking her down the aisle and leading the ceremony.

"Of course, my pleasure."

"You know, a long time ago, I once thought it would be us doing this one day. Once upon a time." That had been so long ago. It felt like a whole lifetime since she had met the newly-graduated Charles Xavier when recruiting for the early X-Men, and both had been entirely smitten.

"Yes. Funny how life is."

"Yes. It sure is. And for a while I thought I would never leave here, would always be here. And now here I am, leaving."

"But not for good."

"No, never for good."

She and Nathan had bought a house nearby, private and with enough distance from the school, but also close enough as both still taught there.

After a particularly difficult X-Force mission, where their views on completing missions had clashed and Nina had rushed back into the fray and had gotten injured, Nathan had wasted no time in proposing.

Now she stood with Charles at the base of the stairs and they joined hands. She gave his hand a squeeze and he placed a kiss on the back of hers. "This is a very special day."

"It is. It feels surreal." But it was very real - this was really happening.

They let go out of each other's hands and Charles held out his arm to her - always the gentleman.

She took his arm and together they left the hall, heading outside to where the wedding would take place, both the ceremony and the reception.

The guests had gathered out on the lawn on this beautiful spring day.

 _Poof!_ Kurt appeared in the guest seating area, however, missed the empty chair beside Angel while teleporting, and ended up landing on Angel instead.

"Ah - Kurt!"

"Ah! Sorry Angel!"

Wade was already crying. "Oh, my Shorty is all grown up! Oh!"

"She's like a million years older than you," Doms reminded him.

"Whatever."

On Charles's arm, Nina walked down the aisle towards where Nathan stood, his mother and father standing nearby. Everyone was present: Wade, Doms, Russell, Colossus, Ellie and Yukio, Charles, Erik, Angel, Logan, Kurt, Jean, Scott, Ororo, Peter, and Hank. As she passed by her old friend, she and Erik exchanged a warm smile.

When they reached the front of the aisle she took her place next to her very soon-to-be husband and Charles took his place before them so that he could lead the ceremony.

"Hello everyone, friends, family," he addressed the crowd. "Welcome to the School for the Gifted. We are here today to join Nina and Nathan together in marriage. Thank you all for being here today to share this special moment with them." He then turned to the couple. "Nina, Nathan, please join hands."

They did so.

 _I can't wait to marry you,_ Nathan sent to her telepathically.

 _You are marrying me,_ she sent back. _Right now, in fact._

 _I know, and I can't wait_.

 _Me neither._ They exchanged a smile.

"Nina Nova, do you take Nathan Summers to be your husband?"

"I do."

"Nathan Summers, do you take Nina Nova to be your wife?"

"I do."

"Then it is my pleasure to pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss."

A wild cheering went up through the crowd when the newly-wedded couple kissed, sealing their vows and officially becoming husband and wife.

"Now it's time to party!" cheered Wade.

At the reception, he came up to Nina once she was finished chatting with Logan. "Isn't it kinda awkward having all your exes here at your wedding."

"No, we're all still friends. Though if you keep bringing it up, it might be."

"Are you going to dance with all of them after dinner?"

"I was planning to, yes. They're my friends."

"What does your new hubby think of that?"

"Hey, I'm dancing with you too."

"I should hope so!"

During the dinner, Wade tapped his knife against the side of his glass to get everyone's attention, and then started giving a heartfelt speech. He had been very disappointed that Charles had been picked over him to lead the ceremony, so Nina and Nathan said he could do a speech instead - which they may or may not come to regret allowing to happen. "First of all, my heartfelt congratulations to the happy couple! Now I could see, just as everyone could, that from the moment they met, these two couldn't keep their eyes - or hands - off each other-"

"Wade, there are kids here!" Doms reminded him. "We're at a school!"

"Of course, I definitely censored my speech!" He continued to drag on and on, and by the end barely anyone had any drink left to toast with it had been so long.

"Finally, he shut up," Nathan mumbled.

"Thank you, Wade. That was - lovely..." Nina thanked him. "Now let's dance!"

After sitting for so long during Wade's extensive speech, everyone was quick to agree and were on their feet.

"I'm in charge of the music!" Wade rushed off.

"Of course he is. Why did we allow him to be so involved in the wedding?" Nathan asked his new wife. _His wife._

"He volunteered himself."

"Of course he did."

"So..." She looked up at him, a loving sparkle bright in her purple eyes.

"So?"

"It's our wedding day - can I get you to dance with me on today of all days at least?"

"I think you probably can."

"Good - let's go then!" She wasted no time in grabbing his hand and dragging him out onto the dance floor where Wade was blasting some slow, romantic music.

"What?" she asked as he smiled down at her while they danced, swaying gently together, holding each other close.

"Thank you for marrying me."

She chuckled. "Well, my pleasure, of course. Thank you for marrying me."

"Of course. My pleasure."

Their future together had begun.

 _Was hoping to update this sooner but I also didn't want to rush the end! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Only one chapter left - see you then and there! :)_


	39. 39

39 _._

 _The Future_

 **Chapter Theme Song: _We Belong_ \- Pat Benatar**

 _Twenty-five years later..._

"Nate, come on, the party's already started!"

"Are you sure they want us old people there?"

"We're not old! And yes, they do! It's for students and staff! Now come on - you don't have to dance, but it will be more fun if you do!" She practically dragged him out of the house and to the mansion grounds where students and staff had already assembled for the end-of-term party.

Their own children were students at the school now - Hope was twenty years old now, and Alex was fourteen.

"There's Hope." Nina nodded to their daughter, catching a glimpse of her bright red hair through the crowd.

"Who's she dancing with?" Nathan asked as soon as he saw her, eyeing the guy she was dancing with. Nina rolled her eyes at his overprotectiveness.

Hope caught sight of them and waved. Then she grooved her way over to her parents, she and Nina laughing and dancing together, while Nathan, as usual, refused to dance.

As she danced, Nina noticed a lone hooded figure step away from the crowd and disappear into the shadows and trees. She sighed - she knew that figure. She stopped dancing and followed.

She found him sitting at the base of a tree with his head down, hood of his hoodie pulled down as low as it would go, covering his face.

She sat down next to him; he didn't acknowledge her presence and neither said anything. Then she gave him a gentle nudge. "Hey, what are you doing all by yourself over here when clearly everyone is having fun over there."

He didn't answer, remained silent.

She reached up and began pulling back his hood, but he grabbed it and held it low over his face.

She sighed.

Their son, Alex Summers Jr. (Not Wade Summers, as Wade had begged them for the entire nine months of her pregnancy, and even after he was born) had always struggled. Poor Alex struggled with insecurities because of his powers. Just as Nathan had wondered - and feared - he had passed on his techno-organic virus onto his children. But while Hope hadn't started displaying signs of it until her mid-teen years, Alex had been eight years old when he had started displaying his own rapid-onset signs. Already, now at fourteen, one of his arms was metal, and the side of his face. He had one amber glowing eye like his dad, and one deep purple eye like his mum.

He hated his powers and the way they affected his appearance and was deeply insecure about it. Poor Nathan felt responsible for it, even though his son didn't blame him.

Alex had always been shy, but these powers had only increased that. This wasn't the first time she'd had to help her son through his anxieties about his obviously visible mutation, something his father had faced and, to a certain degree she believed, still faced.

"Listen, if you want to be alone, that's fine. But those are good people out there, the least judgemental people I've ever met. If you're looking for acceptance, you don't need to worry, because you've already got it here. You know my opinion, and you get to have yours. It's up to you." With that, leaving him on that note, she headed back to the party, leaving him to ponder her words and decide for himself.

She rejoined the party. Hope was back dancing with her friends so Nina began dancing again herself. She met eyes with Nathan across the way, and gestured for him to join her. He just shook his head, to which she rolled her eyes.

Then she saw Alex - he had rejoined the group and was hesitantly approaching some mutants his age. She watched as Billy, also known as Wiccan, gestured to Alex, waving him over. Alex took Billy's hand and began dancing along with him, seeming to grow more confident with each passing minute. This made her smile.

"Now who's he dancing with?" Nathan asked, eyeing their son.

Nina rolled her eyes again. "Leave it. Just relax and have fun. I think after almost thirty years of being married to me, you'd know what fun is." She grinned. "You don't need to be so protective all the time."

"Habit, I guess. I love you."

"And I love you, too." They shared a kiss. "Now, are you going to dance with me or not?"

 _I imagine Hailee Steinfeld as the young adult Hope and Asher Angel as Alex! :)_

 _So maybe I over-complicated some things, but eventually we made it! We've reached the end!_

 _I thoroughly hope you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it! :) I'm still thinking I may write prequels, writing Nina into Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, so we can see what she was up to in the '80s and 90s ;)_

 _But for now, that's the end. One last time, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed overall! :)_


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